Mothers Day Floods
Mother Nature has decided to get in on the Mothers Day act by throwing a whopping hissy in our neck of the woods. I would, of course, agree that she has every right to be peeved at the way we ignore her and trample all over her bounty, but good golly.
It’s still raining. Great deluges of the stuff. When was the last time you ever heard of a mud slide in New England? But Route 1 is closed down in a nearby town with mud slides. Rivers and streams are over their banks. Houses and businesses are flooded. Evacuations are taking place at this very moment. In our unhappy little town, the sewer is overflowing. Yay. Good thing we have bottle water.
As of this moment, we’ve had 12.79 inches of rain for the month. And 5.99 of them have fallen today (so far)—with no signs of letting up. In fact, it’s supposed to rain through tonight, tomorrow, the next day and the next day, too. Weather people are saying we will get somewhere in the vicinity of 15 inches of rain from this storm by the time it ends. Maybe we can get our normal yearly rainfall this month!@&%$!.
My basement has a trickle, but nothing too bad yet. And I’m on high ground. The folks in the lower areas are measuring water in feet. The fire department has mostly given up trying to help people. They do go around pumping out people’s basements in more normal situations (spring thaws), but this is too much, too fast.
The governor has declared a state of emergency for the North Shore and that’s where things stand at the moment. It’s getting uglier by the minute.
The National Weather Service has an interesting page—Preliminary Local Storm Report Summary—that lists some of the local problems.
Well, the lad and I are celebrating Mother’s Day by staying in. We’re not supposed to go anywhere unless absolutely necessary. But we’re enjoying ourselves in the silliest possible ways. Currently having a Sim City duel. My city is beating his. (And he cleaned his room!!!!)
Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there. I hope you are having a really happy one. 
He’s been trying to get me to play World of Warcraft and the Age of Empires and such. As if I need one more reason to park at the computer! I have resisted and now my computer is too old and decrepit to play the newer versions. 
Hey, we’re now up to 7.25” of rain today. And the National Guard has been called in. Sheesh!
And school is cancelled for tomorrow. May be because they serve as evacuation centers. But the roads are under water, too. So it’s probably a combination of several things.
Well, Kate, the way things are going, I could wake up tomorrow morning and find that you all up there have slid down (washed down?) here and are now residing in my back yard!! This is INSANE!! We have not had water in our basement for 27 years, but we do now.........and the spot is getting bigger.
I have cabin fever big time.........but there was no point in going anywhere today cause anyone who could have escaped would have and would have been wherever I wanted to go. If I can’t get out of here tomorrow though, you will hear the screaming up there. Enough already!!
I taught in the city yesterday and it was pretty brutal in there, too. Step off the curb and go up to your knees in water. Ick........driving in and out was an adventure too. Visibility?? What would that be??? ANd then there would be the idiots in the SUV’s--but I won’t get into that. Oh well, just another boring chapter in the life and times of.........
Happy Mother’s Day to you, sounds like it was a nice one, all things considered.
Posted by cyn on 05/14/06 at 09:45 PM
They even had in on the morning news here.
That means you guys ARE drowning.
Germany is dry.
Come and visit.
Posted by
Fox News had a piece about the zoo leading the animals out two by two. Don’t know what that means though.
Time to build an ark, Pablo? ;)
Dry is to be envied, Volkher. We’ve forgotten what dry feels like, though it wasn’t all that long ago that we were under drought conditions and high fire alert.
A little over 15 inches of rain for the month so far, over 8 inches yesterday and another inch and a half so far today. We’re still raining, though much lighter. Another storm moving in tonight which will probably bring heavy rains through the night and early morning. Then...just maybe...we’ll be done with rain for a while.
The eastern portions of the state are a mess. The lad went out today to take some pictures and when he gets around to uploading them, I’ll post a couple. Nothing too dramatic here, but the water levels are startling compared to usual. There are a few houses along the river in the next town that have water up to their first floor and that has to be a heartbreak. But nobody being swept away here, at least.
I went out for a while to the park down by the river to see what was happening. Water is very high and flowing furiously.
The funniest thing was watching the cormorants riding the currents. They’d fly out over the river, dive in and ride the current several hundred feet, fly out and do it all over again. Their own private water park today.
The CBS affiliate station in Boston has some good coverage and photos of conditions around the area—WBZ
Volkher--my older son and his wife are going to Germany the end of this month--he scored tickets to some of the USA soccer games and she is being a good sport and going along. This keeps up, I may have to tag along!!
I was some relieved this morning Kate to see you weren’t residing in my backyard--although nothing would surprise me. Schools and such are closed again tomorrow. You just can’t get anywhere from anywhere right now. I guess a mile or so of route 28 in our downtown is closed. Of course, the Merrimack runs right through it. And it is not supposed to crest until sometime tonight. virtually all of route 1 is closed from the city right up to you.
A friend called to say there was so much water in her backyard--and she does not live near a pond, lake or brook, that a duck was swimming in it this morning. 
She took pictures because it was so unusual and so funny!!
Stay dry--I think I heard the “S” word for late tomorrow and the rest of the week. Fingers crossed.............. 
Posted by cyn on 05/15/06 at 09:33 PM
I’m waiting for the sun, Cyn. Impatiently!!! Still raining. I noticed that my driveway is full of mud this morning. It has washed in (or out) from somewhere. I have a feeling it’s coming down the hill from the neighbor’s construction site. At least the hill hasn’t collapsed on us yet. Meanwhile the grass is growing like mad. I’ll need a threshing machine to mow it, assuming it’ll stop raining eventually.
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Can World of Warcraft be next? But hey, as a Mom you’ve already won a couple of times, right? He’s a good kid and he cleaned his room.