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amberfocusI made myself a new icon out of my very favorite of the flood photos. The full sign says Water Over Roadway. It's my stating the obvious, overwhelmed, irony icon. The full photo has a man rowing a boat down the street. I know the flooding was a disaster but everytime I look at this photo I just have to laugh a bit at life and how we deal with it. If you can't laugh at life, even if a bit darkly, it's not very bearable is it? I may post some of the better photos later on so you can see the extent of some of the damages. It's been an interesting week but life is back more or less to normal for us. Can't say that for all of the rest of the county.
Some people's yards are still underwater. Some people are still mucking mud out of their homes and disposing of ruined furniture. Some people don't have homes anymore because of their houses being washed away in the mudslides in places that have never had mudslides before. A lot of people have ruined cars from the floodwaters rising so high, or for being idiots and trying to drive down roads covered in a foot of water. Tons of people had to be towed from flood waters. The most common excuse? "I thought I could make it." Gee, I hope that thought was worth the $75 towing fee and the $30,000 car you ruined. People can be...stupid.
They're rebuilding the highway and we can drive on it again, though certain areas are confined to just one side of the road. Still, it's nice not to have to go fifteen miles out of the way to get where I want to go.
You know, I used to want to live on property adjacent to a creek. HA! I'll take my high ground any day over a lovely little babbling brook that turns into a raging inferno under the wrong conditions.
As I was reading through some of the interviews and watching some of the footage and listening to all the people who were just so shocked that certain places flooded, like one of the main intersections by the mall under the freeway overpass in a very busy section of town, I just shook my head. I may not be much of an environmentalist, but even I know that if you drain one square mile of marsh wetlands and pave it over and put in a shopping mall uphill from a major roadway, you're going to have problems with flooding. Yes, it's been 18 years since they did it, and it's not the first time it's happened, but it's the worst. And every time, you'd think no one had ever seen it before. Every time, they're still so surprised. Sometimes I just don't think they'll ever get it. *sighs*
Some people's yards are still underwater. Some people are still mucking mud out of their homes and disposing of ruined furniture. Some people don't have homes anymore because of their houses being washed away in the mudslides in places that have never had mudslides before. A lot of people have ruined cars from the floodwaters rising so high, or for being idiots and trying to drive down roads covered in a foot of water. Tons of people had to be towed from flood waters. The most common excuse? "I thought I could make it." Gee, I hope that thought was worth the $75 towing fee and the $30,000 car you ruined. People can be...stupid.
They're rebuilding the highway and we can drive on it again, though certain areas are confined to just one side of the road. Still, it's nice not to have to go fifteen miles out of the way to get where I want to go.
You know, I used to want to live on property adjacent to a creek. HA! I'll take my high ground any day over a lovely little babbling brook that turns into a raging inferno under the wrong conditions.
As I was reading through some of the interviews and watching some of the footage and listening to all the people who were just so shocked that certain places flooded, like one of the main intersections by the mall under the freeway overpass in a very busy section of town, I just shook my head. I may not be much of an environmentalist, but even I know that if you drain one square mile of marsh wetlands and pave it over and put in a shopping mall uphill from a major roadway, you're going to have problems with flooding. Yes, it's been 18 years since they did it, and it's not the first time it's happened, but it's the worst. And every time, you'd think no one had ever seen it before. Every time, they're still so surprised. Sometimes I just don't think they'll ever get it. *sighs*
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-16 10:58 pm (UTC)I have lived in various places over the years. When I was at Uni I lived in an area that got serious flooding in 07. Where I live now, we are on the top of a hill so we were lucky, however we were cut off by 3 rivers in the valleys. Pretty frightening it was. There are some pictures here http://snipurl.com/a75ga This one here is the town center and what it was like! http://snipurl.com/a7629 This one was taken about 200 yards down the hill from where I live! http://snipurl.com/a7683
I do wonder whoever thought it was a good idea to build my son's primary school where it was situated with a river running one side and a canal running the other. Needless to say with a months rain in about 6 hours, it flooded when the river and canal broke their banks. Took him 3.5 hours to get home, there was a point when we thought he wouldn't get home.
I work in the next city to where I live, and the city center is pretty much built on a flood plain. Plus there are 3 rivers running around the city center, surrounding it. My office building was under 5 feet of flood water which was contaminated with raw sewerage. Nice.
I was looking in our local paper today, and planning permission has been awarded for a 1000 house build in an area that is a flood plain. Makes you wonder what the powers that be were smoking when they gave the decision to build.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 08:01 pm (UTC)flooding
Date: 2009-01-16 10:59 pm (UTC)Susan
Re: flooding
Date: 2009-01-21 08:01 pm (UTC)floods
Date: 2009-01-16 11:52 pm (UTC)Re: floods
Date: 2009-01-21 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 05:50 am (UTC)Oy.
I'm glad you're okay.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 08:02 pm (UTC)