Oct. 6--CEDAR RAPIDS -- Three months after the Cedar River flowed 5 feet deep through his home, Herman Sarduy is starting to see his way clear.

"It was a full-time job trying to call everybody, all the agencies, and try to get a roof over my head," Sarduy, 53, said.

Sarduy found help through Horizons, the Cedar Rapids non-profit family-service agency that received a $300,000 grant from the city in late July to augment its credit counseling service.

Sarduy's Horizons caseworker negotiated a deal with his lender -- a nine-month moratorium of payments that give him time to secure financing to rebuild 628 Third Ave. SW, his home of 24 years just inside the 500-year flood plain. Sarduy hopes to fund the $62,000 estimated cost with low-interest loans.

"I can't afford to move right now," said Sarduy, now living in a FEMA mobile home with his wife, daughter and granddaughter. "I can't afford to get another home." Sarduy's case is an early victory for a program that's only going to grow, said Scott Shook, director of Horizons' consumer credit counseling. Using the city's grant, he plans to add five full-time positions to the current five in Cedar Rapids and one in Iowa City.

From about six new clients a week in July, Horizons' caseload jumped to 18 new clients a week last month.

"We're going to see a lot more people," Shook said. "It's going to take about six months for people to really feel the

impact." Financial worries add more stress to local residents dealing with other losses.

"It's pretty hard to haul all your life away," said Jerry McGrane. "A tornado or a fire, it just sort of disappears. But you haul it all out yourself." McGrane, 69, lost his home at 1018 Second St. SE, virtually across the street from the river. In the weekly forums he holds as the District 3 City Council member, he makes a point of recommending Horizons' service to his neighbors.

"I do that to everybody I talk to because it helped me," he said. "We've got Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, and it's going to get hard."

Shift in mental state

Alexandria Carey, clinical social worker with Cedar Rapids Counseling

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