Flooding Archives

February 17, 2014

Damsels in Distress

The July 7, 1966, Missourian reported that one of the most damaging storms in several years passed through Cape Girardeau in three main sweeps Wednesday afternoon. Several blocks near Broadway and Caruthers and Independence and Pacific became flooded, power lines were downed and trees uprooted.

These Good Samaritans are helping some damsels in distress in front of the Cape Girardeau Surgical Group at 1912 Broadway. Click on the photo to make it large enough to identify the players.

Swimming pool with traffic lights

These guys are blasting through water nearly deep enough to submerge the car’s Confederate flag license tag on Broadway in front of Broadway Plaza.

Earlier in the day, children splashed in the water while the traffic signal kept flashing red, yellow and green, but no traffic was passing. One kid was quoted in the paper as saying, “This is the first time I’ve ever been in a pool with traffic lights in it.”

When I called Mother Monday night, she said most of the snow is off the yard, but it’s so full of water that it’s “squishy.” Once we get past the ice and snow stage, the next news from the Midwest will be tornadoes and floods.

December 27, 2013March 16, 2024

Hubble Creek on the Rise

I’ve written before about how Dennis Scivally Park and Hubble Creek in Jackson’s City Park were my go-to places for wild art. I still can’t resist going back there anytime there has been a heavy rain so I can see the water cascade over the low water crossing.

These youngsters are “down at the creek” in the 1960s.

Video of mini-flood

News of torrential rain in Southeast Missouri and a news brief that the city of Jackson is collecting old Christmas trees to combat bank erosion along the creek jogged my memory that I had shot some video in the park on Halloween 2013 after a heavy rain. I’m sure the water was a lot higher during the recent downpours, but this is the best I can do.

Like the video I did on the Bollinger County artesian well, listening to the water is worth 1:17 of your life.

September 4, 2012

Hurricane Isaac Flows By

I went on a bike ride last night. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on two wheels, so my legs were mush. About two-thirds of the way home, my calves started talking to me. “If you don’t stop what you’re doing, we’re going to give you a hurtin.”(Click on any photo to make it larger.)

Water spotted with foam

I listened to my calves and strolled out to the boardwalk that runs along the C51 canal between Lake Worth and West Palm Beach. It drains a substantial portion of southeast Florida between Lake Okeechobee and the ocean, including the water that has had my kid’s house an island west of town.

Not catching much

I didn’t see much activity of a catching variety going on. This couple said a guy closer to the spillway hauled in a good-sized bass, but they hadn’t caught anything yet.

August 27, 2012January 17, 2017

Ties That Bind

There’s a closet in the basement that contains some clothes dating back to just past the middle of the last century. (Sure sounds old when you put it that way.)

When you open the door, you see an assortment of neckties. I recognize some of those – and, no, I’m not going to tell you which ones – once adorned my neck. Most of them are fakes.

Cops wear “breakaway” ties so that the bad guys can’t grab them by the necktie and strangle them. Of course, it’s MY contention that strangulation is the primary goal of the necktie.

Knots known to sailors and serial killers

I was a Boy Scout who earned the Pioneering Merit Badge. Not only could I tie every required knot, I enjoyed playing around with ones known only to sailors and serial killers. The only knot that I’ve never been able to master is a necktie.

Even though I got to cover Queen Elizabeth because I was the only guy on the staff with a suit, I’ve had to depend on fakes and Wife Lila to drape respectability around my neck.

Two instructions

My family has two instructions for the day when there will be “two at my head, two at my feet and two to carry me when I die:”

Not in a necktie.
Not in Florida.

Obligatory Isaac report

We came through Tropical Storm Isaac in pretty good shape. The rains pretty much moved on by early evening, but Son Adam, who lives west of town in a rural area got between 10 and 15 inches of rain. His house is on a high pad about three feet above the water, but he has huge Koi (“ornamental varieties of domesticated common carp”) swimming in his front yard. I warned him that alligators have been know to use those as bait, so I wouldn’t get close to them.

Our Comcast Internet connection is still down, so this is going to be a short post tonight.