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May 12, 2002 - 6:34 p.m. Yes, the birds were singing, the sky was blue. Most of Lease’s family made it to the local Our Town Buffet, home of unseasoned food. Unless you consider the heavy use of salt as ‘seasoning’. Then, this place is the height of fine dining. Lease’s mom loves this place, so I can handle a once-a-year trip there for a ‘meal’ containing ‘food’. With my high blood pressure, the amount of sodium I ingested (on only one plate of ‘salad’ and one plate of ‘main course’) was enough to set my heart into overdrive. All in all, it wasn’t a bad time, though. Lease’s half-brother (and the other half can be defined as ‘ some type of animal’) didn’t show up. Lease’s mom said he was gone when she rose from bed, and he didn’t leave her a note of where he would be. Since he is now 25 years old, he could have told her he didn’t want to come, but that would be asking a lot from him. As long as he has been alive he has WE INTERUPT THIS REGULARLY SCHEDULED ENTRY OF “ROADIEPIG” TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING ENTRY OF THE EMERGENCY INFORMATION SERVICE! DO NOT ADJUST YOUR WEB BROWSER! THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FOR PEOPLE IN THE DIARYLAND COMMUNITY WHO ARE NOT UNDER THE HORRIBLY CRAPPY WEATHER THAT THE RESIDENTS OF ROADIEPIG’S AREA ARE NOW SUFFERING…… Now listen: I really didn’t want to drive all the way to Codeman’s ballgame yesterday, but this is getting ridiculous. It started raining again last night around sunset, and it rained on and off all night. There were a few periods of thunderstorms, and copious amounts of rain fell throughout the period. When I awoke this morning, I was greeted by the sight of a basement floor covered of tiny rivulets of water, all flowing towards the drain in the middle of the room. All of the appliances were standing in water, and it has saturated our boxes of Christmas decorations, too. I managed to move everything to higher ground (since all of this was coming from the south wall. Thankfully, it isn’t coming from all four walls. That would be the end of the rug under the pool table, and who knows how much more damage), and I mopped up what I could. Since the waterways just refilled, I gave up and just turned a large fan on to stir the air around. So, to avoid making this just a ‘woe is me’ kinda entry, I will stop whining now. Many people around her are trying to pump water out of their basements, so my problems are small. I will give you one picture of water pouring through my back yard. At it’s high point this morning, I had a ‘creek’ that was over a foot deep and 8 feet wide barreling through my bottom garden areas. I don’t think anything was uprooted, but I did notice that my drug dealing neighbor’s doghouse had been swept away. I have no idea where it ended up.
Now, for the real damage. I dropped Lease off at home after lunch, and Codeman and I went out with the digital, looking for high water. It wasn’t hard to find. The flooding is some of, if not the worst high water I have seen here in my 40+ years on this planet. There are areas that are covered with water that I thought were unreachable. Water is flowing fast and furious, and is near the bottom of several of our local bridges. The high mark, as of a few hours ago, is about 5 feet above normal below the lake, and even more above normal in the local creeks. Amazing what 10+ inches of rain in a week (4.15 inches since Midnight!) will do to the landscape. The first shot is of the creek that runs through the park closest to our home. Codeman is standing on the steps leading from the city road to the park. The water level is at least 7 feet from the bottom of the steps. Look at how close the main power and phone lines are from being underwater:
This shot is of the pavilion that we always use for family picnics. It is a smaller structure, but , as you can tell, most of it is underwater .
We drove from the park to the area below of lake’s dam. This area is prone to flooding, but I couldn’t believe how bad it was today. First shot is of the main road (closed, of course) that runs parallel to the spillway. It is usual at least 4 feet above the water level. I think the water on the road is at least 3 feet deep, because some Yahoo drove his jacked-up jeep through the water, just to see if he could make it. He did. Everyone there was disappointed.
There were at least 10 carloads of people observing this destruction. Later in the day, Lease decided she wanted to see the damage in person. She couldn’t believe how bad the photos made it appear, and she was even more in awe after visiting the dam. By this time, the police were there, making sure no other Yahoos drove into the water and making sure traffic moved freely. I counted 25 vehicles parked on the road. Shot two shows the water roaring over the dam. I removed the color in this shot, because I think it makes it even more sinister looking than color. The dam usually has a 20-foot drop. Today? Maybe 5.
Last shot is of a farmer’s field, showing how much water is standing. This unlucky farmer had already planted his corn. What is now standing will be dead in just a few days unless the water recedes. Then, he will have to either replant it in corn, or will have to switch to soybeans. Either way, he will be out the cost of his corn seed (about $80 a bag, if I am up to date on their prices). This has been one bad spring to be a farmer…
I have another 40+ photos from today that show other areas of sorrow. I can’t post them all, because I only have about 60% of my file space left at D-land. They are enough to bring your happy mood down, but if anyone wants to see more (and don’t mind a bunch of slow-loading files for their inbox) I would be glad to downsize them and email them to you. Just let me know…… Oh yeah, if you want to see some happier photos, read my entry from Saturday. Much happier, if you ask me….
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Photos from a VERY CALM day at my favorite lake...plus- Happy Thanksgiving to you all ;)8:21 p.m. - Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 One more from the newspaper photo shoot (my work, not the newspapers)10:08 p.m. - Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 Phots? i have far too many to waste your time....8:57 p.m. - Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 The bikini tree? Plus- a (missed) photo-op...7:48 p.m. - Monday, Nov. 12, 2007 Some late photos from Halloween (I've been busy, you know?)6:19 p.m. - Monday, Nov. 05, 2007 Back to top
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