She's Staying

Reid Forgrave: Cedar Rapids, Ia. — "Oh my God!" Lisa Kuzela yells. "Oh my God! Oh my God!"



The 45-year-old woman kicks the door to her home office. The door doesn't budge. She kicks again. Nothing. She pants for breath. Tears stream down her face.



It's a day after Kuzela finally got back inside her flooded two-story home in the Time Check neighborhood of Cedar Rapids. A pink sign still hangs on her front porch: "Unsafe. Do not enter or occupy."



This first-floor office is the only room Kuzela has yet to reach after the water went down.



The room holds so many important documents and cherished mementos. Her diploma from Brigham Young University. The Grolier Encyclopedia of…