flooding | dual personalities

May 3, 2017

“The water prevailed upon the earth”*

by chuckofish

Good grief–more “historic” flooding in flyover country.

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Our hands-on governor fills sandbags.

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The scene in downtown Eureka

People were just beginning to recover from the December 2015 flooding and now we have another “100-year” flood. In fact, we’ve had three 100-year flood events in the last five years! Crests now are expected to reach or surpass levels from the December 2015 flooding.

The Gasconade River

Eureka High School

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The Meramec River in Valley Park

And now this:

Screen Shot 2017-05-02 at 1.33.47 PM.png Zut alors! I can’t like this.

God of compassion,
you hear the cries of all who are in trouble or distress;
accept our prayers for those whose lives are affected by storms and flooding:
strengthen them in their hour of need,
grant them perseverance and courage to face the future
and be to them a firm foundation on which to build their lives;
this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

*Genesis 7:24

The photos are from STLtoday.com.

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January 1, 2016

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”*

by chuckofish

What a way to start the new year! According to our local weather guru Dave Murray, The Great Flood of 2015 is a very big deal.

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Photo from FOX2 Facebook page

“During this event it has forced the closure of Interstate 70 in two locations, Interstate 44 in three locations, and Interstate 55 (at times overnight). This did not occur in the Great Flood of ’93, nor the December Flood of ’82…This flooding event is nothing less than historic and will serve as the new bench mark, the historic reference, for the Meramec River Basin, including the Bourbeuse.”

We who are high and dry take it all rather lightly, but I talked to a delivery guy at work who lives in House Springs who said he can’t even get home. That’s intense.

I am grateful that I can get home and that it is warm and dry there. All I have to do this weekend is take down my Christmas tree and box up all the decorations. This is not a small task, but it is not sand-bagging.

So a toast to and a prayer for all those who are fighting the flood and also for those newspeople who are in the field and in the studio reporting on the flood.

“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”

–Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910

*Brad Paisley

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December 31, 2015

All the people said Amen*

by chuckofish

Tonight is New Year’s Eve. We are going to a party at our old neighbors’ house where everyone has permission to leave at 12:02 a.m. We will all be up way past our bedtimes.

We will ring out the old year and ring in the new: 2016 already? you say. I know.

I had some goals in 2015. I made some serious progress towards them. No, I didn’t reach them, but I’m okay with that.

That basement clean up/organization may never be finished exactly, but it’s in much better shape than it was. Perhaps I can light a fire under the OM and he will pick up where he stalled. Perhaps I will just start shredding…

Anyway, Happy New Year to y’all and good luck to all of us in flyover floodville. As we say here: “Turn around, don’t drown!”