Just in case - those of you who don't live in the Midwest think that our flooding has subsided... You'd be wrong... The last of May, the flood waters returned with a vengeance. Taking out both I-29 & Hwy 34 yet again. Work that had gone on almost non-stop, halted. Both had been re-opened & are now closed again all the way to Missouri.
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| Over the Plattsmouth Bridge~ |
The Plattsmouth Bridge was also closed again, due to flood waters on the Iowa side going over the road. This left people with only two options to reach NE. Either up through Council Bluffs to Omaha, or the Bellevue Bridge. The bridge at Hwy 2, used by many to the south to reach Nebraska City & Lincoln was also closed with water over the road.
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| The Missouri - taking over its flood plain~ |
We we've been looking at another vehicle for me, my thumbs are so bad that I can't easily open the doors of the Bronco anymore. I'd also like heated seats for winter! Since the bridge had just re-opened for the second time, we took that way to reach a dealership on the Nebraska side.
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| Water everywhere~ |
Several weeks ago, we drove through the town of Pacific Junction. It was a horrible sight to see, homeowners had gone back in & cleaned out their homes. Piles of debris, some almost as large as the homes themselves had been moved to the street for pickup. Just heart-rending sad to see this & I did not take photos.
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| Both sides of the road~ |
The Glenwood Resource Center has become the hub for the flood victims. Originally serving three meals a day, thanks to the local church groups who took turns working to cook & serve those meals. The last figure I heard, they had put out over 130,000 meals.
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| Our way east toward home~ |
The scope of the disaster will be felt for years, re-building the levee's has been delayed by the newest onset of melt-water from the north - along with a terrifically wet spring.
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| Thank you to Silver Cloud Photography~ |
Silver Cloud Photography has done a terrific job of photographing the floods... The photo above was taken May 31st. Those displaced have been offered government buy-outs & most have accepted. That still doesn't take into account families who have lived in this area for generations & now are loosing not only their home or farm, but also their history on the land...
I-29 was recently re-opened, but there are no open exits from Glenwood to the Missouri state line.
With Summer now here & the heat going up, we're experiencing high dew points, with crazy high humidity. So much water trapped, the bugs are taking over. Driving down the roads, clouds of insects cover the windshields. Levee repairs have been delayed too. Iowan's are a tough - resilient people. Staying positive & moving forward even in the face of disastrous times.
Holy crap. I've only known the flooding of Snoqualmie valley and the Cedar river that ran right through our barn. Never have horse property on a flood plain, is what I learned from my Geology class at Green River Community College in Auburn, WA. Alas, my husband is much more afraid of all the other natural disasters likely to occur in the PNW if we were to theortically live there someday. Gemrany has no natural disasters, no wild fires, no power outages. It's totally weird, we just have bombs, hundreds of which they find every year. I'm still waiting for the one they find in my pasture, to come defuse.
ReplyDeleteI was explaining 520 tonight to Anja. "It floats. And you know it when the water comes over and hits you in the windshield." WHAAAA?
No natural disasters?! Guess that's why you never make the world news. Of course, neither do we! I'd be buying a metal detector for that pasture! :-)
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