Have you heard about the flooding in the Midwest? Our motto these days is “Turn Around. Don’t Drown.” I didn’t make it up. The news people made it up. And clearly they need to hire some creatives because that is just ridiculous. That little ditty is supposed to remind people not to drive or walk through the flooding water. But as you can see from my Flickr stream most people are just totally ignoring that advice. Like this guy:

We have already beaten the flood record set in 1929 and the river won’t even crest until Friday morning. The flood level is 12 feet. We are currently at 21.6 feet and expect to crest at 24.5 feet. Downtown has been evacuated. This is where you’ll find our police station, court house, county jail, library, science station, apartments and many, many businesses. I work downtown, but I’m just a half block from the evacuation zone. However, they will be turning off all gas and electricity in the evacuation area and my office may lose power as well.

We still have another day and a half until it crests, but some businesses are already getting wet. Believe it or not, this is a parking lot.

But some of the downtown businesses are keeping their sense of humor even as they face the possibility of very expensive damages to their stores. This chocolate store owner left this sign on his building.

Right now Lee and a friend are helping to build a 10 foot dirt wall around a local factory that sits right on the river. It’s an old factory and it would be devastating if it flooded. They have had every dump truck in the area bringing in dirt and building this wall for the last several dates. So far it seems to be working because the surrounding areas are flooded. This park is right next to the factory.

This is the worst flood most of us have ever seen. Several people have already lost their homes. Many more are still trying to move their stuff out before the water reaches their front door. Watching the news people interview folks as they are moving out of their homes on such short notice is heartbreaking. We live farther from the river and at the top of a hill so we are in no jeopardy of flooding. I can’t even imagine what these families are going through, but the news brings me to tears every time I turn it on.

Keaton spent the night at a friend’s house last night. We probably won’t see him until Sunday because he’s now stuck at the friend’s house. The road to his house looks like this:

The house is high on a hill so they aren’t in any danger of flooding, but the only road to their house follows the river and is flooded. Nobody can get in and out. In fact this street above isn’t even the road to their house. It’s just the road to the road that leads to the road that goes to their house. Yeah, that’s a lot of roads. And a lot of water.

As Lee and I drove around the city taking pictures of the flooding we decided to check out the golf course near our home. This is it:

Yes, that big lake is a golf course. Needless to say, the golf course is closed. And will be for a long time. Talk about a water hazard.

Since Lee and I went out around 4pm, the water continues to rise. And the flooding continues to move farther and farther in to the city. Every bridge that goes over the river is closed now. The only way over the river is the interstate. I hate to see what the city will look like tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 10:50 pm and is filed under A day in our life, Dude, you're gettin' an 'A'. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.