floods
I am not sure how widespread the news is, but Central Pennsylvania is flooded. Badly. We are currently undergoing the worst floods since at least 1972. In other words, I have never experienced floods of this severity.
I am okay, if a bit trapped, and I believe everyone else I know around here is okay. That's the best news I could have, pretty much.
Hersheypark and its environs are underwater. I am stuck in my house because, as many of you know, I live halfway up a big hill, and the road at the bottom of the hill is mildly underwater. I say mildly because it's not something my car can handle but it's not nearly as bad as the flooding that killed two bison in Hersheypark's ZooAmerica, and destroyed the Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, and diner at this little plaza about a mile or two from the park. The photos from the area are absolutely astounding. This is not something I really expected to happen here. Yes, the Susquehanna is a major river subject to flooding, but Hershey is farther east than I am from the banks of the Susquehanna and they got it worse. It looks pretty awful so I'm going to keep monitoring the situation. Obviously job hunting isn't possible until next week at the earliest since I can't really leave my house and I'm betting a fair number of the people I'd be contacting have similar problems anyway. At least I'm not like those poor kids stuck at a couple area schools who went to school in the morning yesterday and then the waters rose on so many roads that the buses could not take them out of school at the end of the day.
I don't have pictures because, quite frankly, I'm not going anywhere. But for the curious, here's a sampling of local pictures and news and info:
From PennLive, the Harrisburg newspaper's website comes a whole gallery:
http://photos.pennlive.com/4503/gallery/flooding_in_central_pennsylvania/index.html#incart_hbx
Lots of video and pictures:
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/54806/more-photos-from-wednesdays-ho.asp
The abovementioned Pizza Hut:
http://twitter.com/#!/iWitnessWeather/status/111770985543372802
An article from an Atlanta newspaper:
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/more-than-100k-told-1162982.html?cxtype=rss_news_81963
Pictures from Hersheypark and Knoebels, another amusement park north of here:
http://behindthethrills.com/2011/09/tropical-storm-lee-floods-knoebels-and-hershey-park/
The article on those poor bison:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/09/2_zooamerica_bison_drowning_in.html
(Side note: to the people blasting ZooAmerica for having to kill the animals humanely because of the flooding -- would you prefer they just drowned on their own and were left behind? The ZooAmerica staff loves their animals and takes great care of them, so shut the fuck up and the next time there's a flood, you people who complained will be the first ones we call to save all the animals, and then you can see how difficult it is.)
As of now most of the flooding rivers and creeks have NOT crested, so we're in for a few more days of this. Here's hoping the floods don't get too much worse.
I am okay, if a bit trapped, and I believe everyone else I know around here is okay. That's the best news I could have, pretty much.
Hersheypark and its environs are underwater. I am stuck in my house because, as many of you know, I live halfway up a big hill, and the road at the bottom of the hill is mildly underwater. I say mildly because it's not something my car can handle but it's not nearly as bad as the flooding that killed two bison in Hersheypark's ZooAmerica, and destroyed the Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, and diner at this little plaza about a mile or two from the park. The photos from the area are absolutely astounding. This is not something I really expected to happen here. Yes, the Susquehanna is a major river subject to flooding, but Hershey is farther east than I am from the banks of the Susquehanna and they got it worse. It looks pretty awful so I'm going to keep monitoring the situation. Obviously job hunting isn't possible until next week at the earliest since I can't really leave my house and I'm betting a fair number of the people I'd be contacting have similar problems anyway. At least I'm not like those poor kids stuck at a couple area schools who went to school in the morning yesterday and then the waters rose on so many roads that the buses could not take them out of school at the end of the day.
I don't have pictures because, quite frankly, I'm not going anywhere. But for the curious, here's a sampling of local pictures and news and info:
From PennLive, the Harrisburg newspaper's website comes a whole gallery:
http://photos.pennlive.com/4503/gallery/flooding_in_central_pennsylvania/index.html#incart_hbx
Lots of video and pictures:
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/54806/more-photos-from-wednesdays-ho.asp
The abovementioned Pizza Hut:
http://twitter.com/#!/iWitnessWeather/status/111770985543372802
An article from an Atlanta newspaper:
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/more-than-100k-told-1162982.html?cxtype=rss_news_81963
Pictures from Hersheypark and Knoebels, another amusement park north of here:
http://behindthethrills.com/2011/09/tropical-storm-lee-floods-knoebels-and-hershey-park/
The article on those poor bison:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/09/2_zooamerica_bison_drowning_in.html
(Side note: to the people blasting ZooAmerica for having to kill the animals humanely because of the flooding -- would you prefer they just drowned on their own and were left behind? The ZooAmerica staff loves their animals and takes great care of them, so shut the fuck up and the next time there's a flood, you people who complained will be the first ones we call to save all the animals, and then you can see how difficult it is.)
As of now most of the flooding rivers and creeks have NOT crested, so we're in for a few more days of this. Here's hoping the floods don't get too much worse.