Great flood, part two
Except for the snow, today was much better than yesterday. At least, for me.
You heard me. Snow. Well, okay, flurries. But still. They've been flying all day.
So, yesterday. My drive to work takes me past a railroad track and near a river. As anticipated, the eastbound road I usually take, which has an underpass at the railroad track, was blocked. There was a cop/sheriff there directing traffic in the morning; by this morning, there was a full-blown detour. Great. So I go to the next road south, and even getting there I encountered flooding; the right lane of the southbound road had a lot of standing water on it, but the left lane was clear. Okay. It was still flooded on my way home today, by the way. So I get on the next eastbound road, and it has this massive overpass, and so I make it over the tracks just fine, only to encounter a broken-down car a half-mile up the road, blocking the right lane, and maybe another half-mile up from that there's standing water across all lanes of traffic. Great. Everyone funneled back into the left lane at that point, save for a short bus, which decided it was going to go through the water in the right lane, even though it was higher than in the left. The water was somewhat deep in the left lane, but not so deep to get into the cars, so while it was slow-going, it was passable. With the bus sloshing around beside us? Not so good. The bus at least slowed down. I mean, really, do you honestly think it's a good idea to plow through standing water? My lord.
The next few miles of my journey were uneventful until I hit another southbound road. The lowest point on that road comes where a school is on one side and a medical facility is on the other. There'd already been standing water on the roadway on my way home Wednesday; it hadn't gotten any better. Like the other street, all traffic was funneling into the left lane in either direction, but here's the problem: People were trying to turn left into the medical building. Traffic in the other direction was too heavy and blocking anyone from turning. Therefore, traffic was at a standstill behind the left turn people. Not good. It almost would have been better had they gone up to the next road, a quarter mile away, turned left onto the street, then made a U-turn and come back down.
By now I was just about a mile from my own job, which is just off an intersection. Unfortunately, it was flooded. I couldn't get there. I was just a few yards from the intersection--actually in the turn lane to get onto the building's street--and I had to turn around. What a pain. I'd known from the conditions Wednesday afternoon that there'd be the possibility I couldn't get in that way, but oh well. I went around and got through from the back entrance, and then I had to figure out where to go from there. There's parking in front of the building--basically an industrial strip mall--and in theory behind the building. Except behind the building it was flooded pretty badly; several cars were stuck. And even the lot directly in front of my business had enough standing water in it that I didn't feel comfortable parking there, so I parked down the block where it was clear. It was pretty bad. It was just me and my boss for a while; several people had to deal with flooding at their homes, and others had a hard time getting there because of roadway flooding. Once the rain stopped, around 11 AM, the waters did start to recede, but it was still bad behind the building when I left.
This morning, I encountered zero issues in driving save for the detour. My coworkers, however, had bigger issues; there's a river that bisects the town we work in, and it overflowed, and all the area bridges were closed. There was literally no easy way to get there, because even when you could find a bridge that was open, dozens of other people already were trying to cross. And my boss stayed home until the afternoon because now his basement flooded. Sigh. It's been quite the mess, but at least here at home (*knock on wood*) things have been okay, and while yesterday was a hassle, it's getting better. So long as we don't get anymore rain, it should clear out of our area soon enough.
You heard me. Snow. Well, okay, flurries. But still. They've been flying all day.
So, yesterday. My drive to work takes me past a railroad track and near a river. As anticipated, the eastbound road I usually take, which has an underpass at the railroad track, was blocked. There was a cop/sheriff there directing traffic in the morning; by this morning, there was a full-blown detour. Great. So I go to the next road south, and even getting there I encountered flooding; the right lane of the southbound road had a lot of standing water on it, but the left lane was clear. Okay. It was still flooded on my way home today, by the way. So I get on the next eastbound road, and it has this massive overpass, and so I make it over the tracks just fine, only to encounter a broken-down car a half-mile up the road, blocking the right lane, and maybe another half-mile up from that there's standing water across all lanes of traffic. Great. Everyone funneled back into the left lane at that point, save for a short bus, which decided it was going to go through the water in the right lane, even though it was higher than in the left. The water was somewhat deep in the left lane, but not so deep to get into the cars, so while it was slow-going, it was passable. With the bus sloshing around beside us? Not so good. The bus at least slowed down. I mean, really, do you honestly think it's a good idea to plow through standing water? My lord.
The next few miles of my journey were uneventful until I hit another southbound road. The lowest point on that road comes where a school is on one side and a medical facility is on the other. There'd already been standing water on the roadway on my way home Wednesday; it hadn't gotten any better. Like the other street, all traffic was funneling into the left lane in either direction, but here's the problem: People were trying to turn left into the medical building. Traffic in the other direction was too heavy and blocking anyone from turning. Therefore, traffic was at a standstill behind the left turn people. Not good. It almost would have been better had they gone up to the next road, a quarter mile away, turned left onto the street, then made a U-turn and come back down.
By now I was just about a mile from my own job, which is just off an intersection. Unfortunately, it was flooded. I couldn't get there. I was just a few yards from the intersection--actually in the turn lane to get onto the building's street--and I had to turn around. What a pain. I'd known from the conditions Wednesday afternoon that there'd be the possibility I couldn't get in that way, but oh well. I went around and got through from the back entrance, and then I had to figure out where to go from there. There's parking in front of the building--basically an industrial strip mall--and in theory behind the building. Except behind the building it was flooded pretty badly; several cars were stuck. And even the lot directly in front of my business had enough standing water in it that I didn't feel comfortable parking there, so I parked down the block where it was clear. It was pretty bad. It was just me and my boss for a while; several people had to deal with flooding at their homes, and others had a hard time getting there because of roadway flooding. Once the rain stopped, around 11 AM, the waters did start to recede, but it was still bad behind the building when I left.
This morning, I encountered zero issues in driving save for the detour. My coworkers, however, had bigger issues; there's a river that bisects the town we work in, and it overflowed, and all the area bridges were closed. There was literally no easy way to get there, because even when you could find a bridge that was open, dozens of other people already were trying to cross. And my boss stayed home until the afternoon because now his basement flooded. Sigh. It's been quite the mess, but at least here at home (*knock on wood*) things have been okay, and while yesterday was a hassle, it's getting better. So long as we don't get anymore rain, it should clear out of our area soon enough.