2011 High Water – One

They say the water is coming. They say it will be very high this year because the rains in the Midwest have been unusually heavy, and frequent. They have exploded the levees in Missouri to save Cairo from drowning. They say for us to prepare for the worst flooding since 1973, or even 1927.

It is hard to look out over our back yard and imagine that what they predict will happen. It looks so peaceful, and usual, with the grass and the newly filled depressions. We should be heading into the time of falling water and hot summer days. You can see the water back there, well within the riverbed. But it has been rising, and for the last several days it has come up about six inches a day. It is now at 18 feet. At that rate of rise we might have 27 feet by the 25th, the day they say the crest will be here. Our yard will not look like it does now, then.

Today I went to visit some neighbors to just make sure that other people are having to think about the same things I am. It was comforting to hear them worry too. So today I and two friends began to do the preparations that you can do to get ready for the flood. You can only prepare for the conditions predicted by others, and in our case those conditions predict two or three feet of water over our whole yard, lasting for more than a week before it begins to recede. What can you do? The outbuildings we have, a shop and a garage and a boathouse, all of which are on slabs, are now free of any object resting on the ground. Everything is piled as high as possible and I’ll probably never find things I knew well before today. We filled my truck with all the power tools in the shop and moved them to a friends house, along with a freezer containing animals to be prepared for my bone collection. All the driftwood has been secured onto the back porch, and the firewood being collected for next winter is on the front porch. The cats are very confused.

The house will be dealt with next. I sure would like to believe the water won’t get high enough to flood the house, but I’m not sure I do.

Sometime in the next few days we will have to leave our property. We are told the road will flood and people will not be able to return home until the water recedes. Only then can we begin to deal with the damage the water will have done, whatever that is.

The river is at 18 feet now on the Butte La Rose gauge. It is rising and will continue to rise for some weeks, perhaps. The Mississippi is charging south with an energy that reminds us that there is a reason to pay attention, always.

Rise and Shine, Jim