Flood
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god...
We're all safe here, and likely to remain so. But.
That last surge of rain apparently raised the river here to nearly 24 feet and still climbing. They'd predicted it'd top out at 22.5. And the levees at Athens only go up to 26.
For the last half-hour or so, police cars have been going up and down the street setting off their sirens and announcing the state of emergency over loudspeakers, recommending evacuation, to the township fire hall or to a nearby high school. A lot of people from my neighborhood have already jumped in their cars and gone.
This part of town was safe in 2006 and in 1972, but the business district and all the houses between Edward and Satterlee Streets lie considerably lower than my house does here; that does worry me.
And I'm worried here, too. Just around the corner and down a block from my house, the side street runs down to the river. Only two weeks ago, the riverbank looked like it does every summer: a strip of forest, with wide open swathes that the river fills during the spring thaw; the river itself, burbling quietly some distance away. One could wade across to Paines Island, or even walk to it on stepping stones.
Now the river is a monstrous brown torrent, frothing, splashing, running wild, full of debris and moving so fast the eye can scarcely follow it. It's up to the underside of the bridges; a few hours ago I saw them building barriers atop the levee in front of the borough hall. And around the corner from me, just down the block, it's come up onto the road, and into the yards of the last two houses on the street.
The street just disappears into the river. Waves are breaking at the end of the block. And even though, during Hurricane Agnes, a storm even bigger and meaner than this, when the river burst its banks and topped the levees and wrecked half the Susquehanna Basin, this house was high and dry, I still can't help thinking, If it rose a few more feet...
I'll post again when there's more to know.
Update 05:09 a.m. - Just saw an updated projection from the NWS's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service. The anticipated crest is now 26.7 feet.
That's still not high enough to reach my house. But the Athens levees go up to twenty-six...
Is a strong brown god...
We're all safe here, and likely to remain so. But.
That last surge of rain apparently raised the river here to nearly 24 feet and still climbing. They'd predicted it'd top out at 22.5. And the levees at Athens only go up to 26.
For the last half-hour or so, police cars have been going up and down the street setting off their sirens and announcing the state of emergency over loudspeakers, recommending evacuation, to the township fire hall or to a nearby high school. A lot of people from my neighborhood have already jumped in their cars and gone.
This part of town was safe in 2006 and in 1972, but the business district and all the houses between Edward and Satterlee Streets lie considerably lower than my house does here; that does worry me.
And I'm worried here, too. Just around the corner and down a block from my house, the side street runs down to the river. Only two weeks ago, the riverbank looked like it does every summer: a strip of forest, with wide open swathes that the river fills during the spring thaw; the river itself, burbling quietly some distance away. One could wade across to Paines Island, or even walk to it on stepping stones.
Now the river is a monstrous brown torrent, frothing, splashing, running wild, full of debris and moving so fast the eye can scarcely follow it. It's up to the underside of the bridges; a few hours ago I saw them building barriers atop the levee in front of the borough hall. And around the corner from me, just down the block, it's come up onto the road, and into the yards of the last two houses on the street.
The street just disappears into the river. Waves are breaking at the end of the block. And even though, during Hurricane Agnes, a storm even bigger and meaner than this, when the river burst its banks and topped the levees and wrecked half the Susquehanna Basin, this house was high and dry, I still can't help thinking, If it rose a few more feet...
I'll post again when there's more to know.
Update 05:09 a.m. - Just saw an updated projection from the NWS's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service. The anticipated crest is now 26.7 feet.
That's still not high enough to reach my house. But the Athens levees go up to twenty-six...