Iowa is home to record-high floodwaters that brought misery to some of Iowa's smaller river towns. Floodwaters have inundated Iowa City and the University of Iowa campus despite the effort to hold back the water with sandbags.
"We've had the [National Guard] working next to prisoner inmates, sandbagging," said David Jackson, the university's facilities manager. "Students, faculty and staff, leaders of the university, the president of the university -- out sandbagging."
Some 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and others faced a voluntary evacuation order through the morning, said Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey.
The Iowa River in Iowa City crested at 31.5 feet and was expected to remain at that level until Monday, city and state officials said Sunday.
Classes at the university have been suspended until next Sunday, according to its Web site.
This month's severe weather has trampled towns from North Dakota to Indiana. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says more than 11 million Midwesterners will be affected by flooding and tornadoes. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, some of nearly 20,000 displaced residents began to return home Sunday as water there receded.
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"The Incredible Hulk" was a box-office Winner.
Hulk brought in $54.5 million over opening weekend .
Ang Lee's "Hulk" opened in 2003 with a whopping $62.1 million weekend but then rolled over and died in subsequent weeks amid terrible word of mouth. That movie crawled to $132.2 million in sales, seemingly a respectable total but actually meager considering its huge first weekend.
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Barack Obama celebrated Father's Day by calling on black fathers.
Black fathers are "missing from too many lives and too many homes," Barack Obama said Sunday.
"They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it," the Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday at a largely black church in his hometown.
Reminding the congregation of his firsthand experience growing up without a father, Obama said he was lucky to have loving grandparents who helped his mother. He got support, second chances and scholarships that helped him get an education. Obama's father left when he was 2.
"A lot of children don't get those chances. There is no margin for error in their lives," said Obama, an Illinois senator.
"I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle -- that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my girls," added Obama, whose daughters, Sasha and Malia, and his wife, Michelle, watched from the audience.
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A huge tornado funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. The funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up into the clouds. Besides tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported.
(AP Photo/Lori Mehmen)
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