For the second straight March the flood water came for our town. This past September I joined Engine Co 1, our town's volunteer fire department. So I was part of the response this time around. The predictions were for levels matching or surpassing last year's. Before that you'd have to go back to 1986 for levels like that.
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Mexican restaurant on Thursday;
seafood on Friday |
Friday morning the national guard sent up five 2 1/2 ton trucks and drivers to help in rescue, recon and whatever else we needed. Six hours before the river crested we took a pair of them and did a neighborhood assessment tour. By the time the river crested at 1am Saturday morning it was clear the flood waters stayed a few inches lower than last year. No water got into my house, and it only crept halfway into my garage. Only the tires on a few bikes and the bottoms of some watertight bins even got touched. Everything else had been moved to shelves, been stacked on tables, or were suspended from the rafters by ropes. The place looked like it belonged to a hoarder with an anti-gravity machine.
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| Waterfront property is not always more valuable |
I have some great video of the flood tour in which all the local street look like rivers. Only the houses and tops of bushes show above the surface. Unfortunately blogger was not able to upload them. I'll try again this afternoon.
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| The home of Engine Co No 1, where I am a volunteer |
Good God, God! What a mess! I'm glad your house wasn't damaged, but Mother Nature can be a real bitch, can't she?
ReplyDeleteThat Oreo ice cream sandwich makes me hungry.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a YouTube channel? I just host videos there and use the embed code they give me to post it on the blog. I know big timers who do it that way, so that's what I do.
Reminds me of one big flood we had when I was a kid living in Jersey. People were going down the main street in rowboats.
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it through okay.
Knock on wood, but I've never seen anything like that here in Detroit. I'm hoping I can continue to say that. I can't imagine the clean up effort after something like that.
ReplyDeleteAre the flood insurance premiums through the roof?
Cardi,
ReplyDeleteFlood insurance for me was $1600. I needed it last year for the garage and it paid off handsomely and without fuss. FEMA sets the premiums, so there was no knee-jerk rate hike after the widespread flooding and subsequent claims after that. I don't expect a change this year either.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI think the old girl is just going through menopause (overdue really) and global warming is just the hot flashes. The trickle down results land rather heavily on us though.
Fred,
but didn't the shot of Snookie 'the sausage' chase your appetite away immediately?
Knuck,
we had boats and we were ready. I was pyched to start rescues off rooftops and upper windows, but it never became necessary. BUT WE WERE TOTALLY READY FOR THAT SHIT! BOO-YAHHH!
Glad to hear your house was spared. Sad to see that the residents of Little Falls (bad choice of words for a town susceptible to floods) and Willowbrook Mall were not so lucky...
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