Flooding!

This is a photo from the last bout of flooding here in April of 2005. The river rose 32+ feet.





Here's a picture from this morning. The bridge is normally about 40 feet above the river.

The water is at 34+ feet and is expected to crest above 38 feet. 38 feet is like the magic number, once the river reaches 38 feet, it spills into the town itself. Right now it's only flooding those areas directly around the river. It's ridiculous.

This is the fourth major flood since September of 2004. Before 2004, the highest recorded flood was in 1955 at 38.85 feet. Before that, nothing really comes close. In 2004 and in 2005, they referred to the flooding as the "100-year flood" implying that the magnitude of flooding experienced during those storms was so rare it would only occur every 100 years. I think they forgot to factor in global warming and exponentially expanding developments into the equation.

In August, 1955 the river reached 38.85 feet.
In September, 2004 the river reached 30.95 feet.
In April, 2005 the river reached 32.75 feet.
On October, 9, 2005 the river reached 17.26 feet.

I almost forgot the best part - the water treatment plant in our town is only a few hundred yards from the river and every time the river floods we can't use our water for a few days until they clean it all out. Yuck.