That's a line from Bill Cosby's famous "Noah" sketch. The situation here is anything but risible--but we've got to laugh to keep from crying or stressing out too much.
I did manage to make it to work this morning--only to have them close the university two hours later. That was a smart move, given that there were only two bridges still passable in the entire city, and dozens of road closures. But I do think they should have made the decision much earlier, and not asked so many people to come in on such a hazardous travel day.
I had mapped out in my head two possible travel routes to work today--and was only able to use one of them, because the alternate route was already closed off. There's a mobile home park not far from the river about half a mile down the road from me, and they've had to evacuate all the residents--because the water is over the rescuers' heads. There's major flooding in university buildings and elsewhere--and it's obvious that some sewage has gotten into the floodwaters because anywhere you drive past standing water, it's already pretty rank.
And we're not out from under the gun yet. It was cloudy most of the morning, but now the sun's come out and the atmosphere is heating up and becoming unstable again. Forecasters have bumped up the amount of additional rainfall they're anticipating we'll see from 0.5-1 inch to 1-2 inches, with some areas possibly seeing as much as 5 inches or more.
We don't need that. The average monthly rainfall for DeKalb in August is 4.45 inches. Officially at the university yesterday, we got 4.85 inches from 7 a.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. today. And that came on top of the nearly 7 inches of rain we'd already gotten this month. We need another one to five inches of rain like George W. Bush needs a membership in Mensa. Right now, the river is only four inches shy of its historical crest of 15.8 feet, which came on my sister's birthday in 1983. Another three or four inches of rain and I think I can confidently predict we'll break that historical record--which I'm quite sure everyone concerned would just as soon not happen.
I leave you alone for five freakin' minutes, and THIS happens???? It was sunny and beautiful when we left on Thursday -and then later Thursday (right? this started on Thursday?) all hell broke loose.
Posted by: Andrea Rusin | Sunday, 26 August 2007 at 13:49
Thursday morning was partly cloudy, disgustingly humid, but quiet. Thursday afternoon and evening, on the other hand, was pretty much one storm after another, all riding--slowly--along the frontal boundary draped right over us.
The good news is, the extra rain never materialized. We got a bit of drizzle on Friday morning, and that was enough to stabilize things so that no more rain came down. Yesterday and today have been sunny and pleasant. We might get some more rain midweek, but then it's supposed to cool down some and be nice through next weekend.
Posted by: Michael | Sunday, 26 August 2007 at 15:29
I wish there was some way we could borrow some of that rain - we're way, WAY below normal and everything green is turning brown.
Be careful, for goodness sakes. I am sending my 'goodest' thoughts to you.
Posted by: andante | Monday, 27 August 2007 at 16:44