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So my local area got about 2 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. We usually only get 9 in a year. Which along with the accelerated snow melt made a lot of the smaller tributary streams flood.
I spent all day yesterday volunteering with the Local Red Cross manning a feeding site at the main sandbag filling area. All together about 500 volunteers filled & delivered about 23,000 sandbags.
Today there are about 200 homes with out power or other services along one creek and another 8 on the other side of the valley where a bridge washed out and the road is now the stream bed for a mile.
So far we haven't needed to open a public shelter as most homes where cut off & the ones that flooded the water was in basements & crawlspaces, so are habitable.
The creeks may rise overnight as we are expecting more rain tonight Thur Wednesday.
So once again I'm amazed at a few things. The first is how precarious the infrastructure that we depend upon is. The reason most people are without power is because the 'lines' washed out at bridge crossing, along with a 4 inch natural gas line. And another 6 inch line is 'compromised' at a river crossing. Whatever that means.
They are estimating that some homes may be without power for 2 - 10 days, depending on when the water receeds, etc.
Most people's wells don't work because of no power. Something to think about when buying rural property.
One of the isolated families is concerned about running out of baby formula & diapers less than 24 hours after the event. Can you say grasshopper?
But I'm also encouraged by the number of people that turned out to helpfully sandbags. It was fun to watch the University students use Twitter & text messages to get the word out that volunteers where needed.
I also wonder how many of these people will be better prepared in the future??? Or will they think it couldn't happen again?
I spent all day yesterday volunteering with the Local Red Cross manning a feeding site at the main sandbag filling area. All together about 500 volunteers filled & delivered about 23,000 sandbags.
Today there are about 200 homes with out power or other services along one creek and another 8 on the other side of the valley where a bridge washed out and the road is now the stream bed for a mile.
So far we haven't needed to open a public shelter as most homes where cut off & the ones that flooded the water was in basements & crawlspaces, so are habitable.
The creeks may rise overnight as we are expecting more rain tonight Thur Wednesday.
So once again I'm amazed at a few things. The first is how precarious the infrastructure that we depend upon is. The reason most people are without power is because the 'lines' washed out at bridge crossing, along with a 4 inch natural gas line. And another 6 inch line is 'compromised' at a river crossing. Whatever that means.
They are estimating that some homes may be without power for 2 - 10 days, depending on when the water receeds, etc.
Most people's wells don't work because of no power. Something to think about when buying rural property.
One of the isolated families is concerned about running out of baby formula & diapers less than 24 hours after the event. Can you say grasshopper?
But I'm also encouraged by the number of people that turned out to helpfully sandbags. It was fun to watch the University students use Twitter & text messages to get the word out that volunteers where needed.
I also wonder how many of these people will be better prepared in the future??? Or will they think it couldn't happen again?
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