Monday, September 15, 2008

Ike's Aftermath

Even here in the Midwest, we are feeling the effects of hurricane Ike.  

It rained buckets all weekend long, and although it was very conducive to having movie marathons and baking chocolate chip cookies, it is wreaking havoc on the rivers in our town.

One of the best things about the town that I live in, is the two rivers that converge and flow through the heart of downtown.  The Fox and Illinois rivers are beautiful (as evidenced by our canoe trip last weekend) but are taking a turn for the worse.  

Today, I would describe the rivers as downright scary.

The national weather service has issued flood warnings and you can literally see the river getting higher.

Starchy is a teacher at the high school.  There are no classes today because the school is located right on the river.  He went this morning to see for himself and took these pictures from his iPhone.  

The wall in the foreground is the only thing preventing the river from spilling over into the school's parking lot.

You can see the water level teetering and looking as if it is almost at the breaking point.  Notice the roof of a gazebo on the other side of the river!


This picture was taken from Starchy's classroom.  

The next 24 hours are going to be key.  Starchy is at the high school now filling sandbags.  I will keep everyone posted!

2 comments:

jen said...

Rivers are beautiful as long as they aren't in your backyard. That's what everyone in the Quad Cities always used to say when the Mississippi flooded our towns. The river was the highest I think I had ever seen it today driving home (in yet again, more rain!). Stay dry!!

LiteralDan said...

Wow, you guys got it even worse than we did! It's crazy how wide a path of destruction a hurricane makes.