A couple weeks ago, I mentioned 'when it rains, it pours' in discussing my personal financial crises, but this time around, it has more to do with the actual _weather_ in our town.
Last week we had several days of hard, heavy rain. Over this past weekend we did not need _more rain_ but we got it anyway. Some of you probably have read in your newspapers (or heard on television or whatever) about the very heavy rains throughout the south and southern midwest. The weather service began warning us on Friday to expect a lot more rain before it was all over, and indeed we got (are still getting) it. Because our town is mostly in a valley (although large parts of it are on a hill within that valley) we are pretty safe from tornados, but not all that safe from high water and floods. Our neighbors to the south, Coffeyville, KS got flooded worse than we did here, so far, that is, with about half their town under deep water and the rest of it under an inch or so. About 3000 of the residents of Coffeyville had to be evacuated as a result.
Here in Independence, we have not as of yet been that 'fortunate'. Some] of our streets, in lower-laying areas of town have been closed, for blocks or so at a time; the most notable examples being Second Street from Locust Street north to the Water Works, although the houses along there seem to be doing okay; Park Blvd (Third Street) closed from Locust north to Ash Street (a distance of several blocks past the baseball diamond; Penn Street where the viaduct goes under the railroad tracks north side of town, 10th Street from City Limits south to near Dearing, Kansas, most of 19th Street with its railroad tracks in that low-lying area.
The town of Neodesha, KS got clobbered pretty badly from the rain also.
One oddity, IMO is that the water works in Coffeyville and Neodesha are still operating; our water supply here in Independence is off for the 'duration'; they just now said on television it is back on, but undrinkable without boiling first. When I just now tested it, it is on, but just a trickle; I'll give it a coulpe more hours to build up the pressure.
Well, that's life in our town for this week!
PAT