Heavy rain and flooding
My internet connection has been down at home since the weekend, so I am writing this form work, which I am glad to have reached safely.
We have had days of heavy rain here in the Northeast US, and our rain gauge is overflowing. Tonight it rained more, and my morning commute was quite interesting. There is no really easy way for me to get down off of our hilltop, but I chose what I hoped was the safest route. There were a lot of washouts, but no water deeper than 6 inches and no trees or other insurmountable obstacles across the road for the first 12 miles, so I thought I was doing pretty good. There is a two-lane road that I take which is on a narrow ledge; it has small cliffs going up on your left, a few stories high, and a one story drop off the right hand side down to a large stream, which the road follows in a winding, twisting fashion. The road is paved well, and it is generally quite picturesque, winding through woods and past 200 year old mills and stone houses. Today that stream was a raging brown river sweeping along lawn chairs and debris like toys. It was fascinating to watch.
Since the road is elevated above the stream for most of the way, I figured that I was safe. I was enjoying the antics of the surging waters when I saw a few orange cones in the road. They looked like they had been tossed there carelessly, and 2 were lying on their sides- perhaps swept away by water rushing down the road overnight. I slowed down but saw no danger so kept going. About a half-mile further along, I saw on my right that a tree was down over top of electric/utility wires (there are poles with wires that cross that stream, and there are so many wires you'd think the weight would pull the poles down). I slowed again and was looking down to my right at the devastation-- the huge tree was still halfway supported by the wires, which weren't broken yet, like it was across a hammock. Then I approached a sharp left curve, and in front of my Astro van were more wires, with one of them right across my path. The wires sloped down from the cliffs and towards the water, so were higher on the lefthand side than on the right. I stopped altogether to think for a minute. There was definitely not enough room to turn my van around right there, between the cliffs and the guard rail and the wires. I moved to the lefthand lane, hoping that no one would come around the curve from the other direction, as the curve is so sharp that they wouldn't see the van or the wires until it was too late (remember, we drive in the righthand lanes here in the US). I stuck my head out the window to judge the height of my van versus the wires, and then backed up, folded my lefthand mirror against the side of the van, and proceeded slowly under the wires in the left lane, scraping the cliffs slightly on the driver's side.
Thank goodness it fit. I was glad to be around that curve. I was almost to the end of that road, with about 1/4 of a mile to go. There were no more wires or trees down in the road, but lots of mud and water. At the end of the road, I saw one small caution horse and an orange cone in the righthand lane, in a half-hearted attempt to close the road. I got out and left a large note on the highway horse, on the back of a brown paper grocery bag I found in my van. "CAUTION-WIRES ACROSS ROAD". I stuck a tree branch in the metal clamp on the horse and firmly impaled my note on it. Hopefully it will stay put for a while, until someone does a better job of closing the road.
Sorry, no stamps yet today, but I thought you might be interested in what was going on here in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I tried to give you a good description.
If anyone else is experiencing flooding, tell us about it! I'd love to hear. And please be safe!
Lately I've been trying to identify and file various Commonwealth items, so I may have some questions soon for all of you, as you are so knowledgable and helpful. But it will have to wait until my internet connection at home is back up, so I have use of my scanner.
We have had days of heavy rain here in the Northeast US, and our rain gauge is overflowing. Tonight it rained more, and my morning commute was quite interesting. There is no really easy way for me to get down off of our hilltop, but I chose what I hoped was the safest route. There were a lot of washouts, but no water deeper than 6 inches and no trees or other insurmountable obstacles across the road for the first 12 miles, so I thought I was doing pretty good. There is a two-lane road that I take which is on a narrow ledge; it has small cliffs going up on your left, a few stories high, and a one story drop off the right hand side down to a large stream, which the road follows in a winding, twisting fashion. The road is paved well, and it is generally quite picturesque, winding through woods and past 200 year old mills and stone houses. Today that stream was a raging brown river sweeping along lawn chairs and debris like toys. It was fascinating to watch.
Since the road is elevated above the stream for most of the way, I figured that I was safe. I was enjoying the antics of the surging waters when I saw a few orange cones in the road. They looked like they had been tossed there carelessly, and 2 were lying on their sides- perhaps swept away by water rushing down the road overnight. I slowed down but saw no danger so kept going. About a half-mile further along, I saw on my right that a tree was down over top of electric/utility wires (there are poles with wires that cross that stream, and there are so many wires you'd think the weight would pull the poles down). I slowed again and was looking down to my right at the devastation-- the huge tree was still halfway supported by the wires, which weren't broken yet, like it was across a hammock. Then I approached a sharp left curve, and in front of my Astro van were more wires, with one of them right across my path. The wires sloped down from the cliffs and towards the water, so were higher on the lefthand side than on the right. I stopped altogether to think for a minute. There was definitely not enough room to turn my van around right there, between the cliffs and the guard rail and the wires. I moved to the lefthand lane, hoping that no one would come around the curve from the other direction, as the curve is so sharp that they wouldn't see the van or the wires until it was too late (remember, we drive in the righthand lanes here in the US). I stuck my head out the window to judge the height of my van versus the wires, and then backed up, folded my lefthand mirror against the side of the van, and proceeded slowly under the wires in the left lane, scraping the cliffs slightly on the driver's side.
Thank goodness it fit. I was glad to be around that curve. I was almost to the end of that road, with about 1/4 of a mile to go. There were no more wires or trees down in the road, but lots of mud and water. At the end of the road, I saw one small caution horse and an orange cone in the righthand lane, in a half-hearted attempt to close the road. I got out and left a large note on the highway horse, on the back of a brown paper grocery bag I found in my van. "CAUTION-WIRES ACROSS ROAD". I stuck a tree branch in the metal clamp on the horse and firmly impaled my note on it. Hopefully it will stay put for a while, until someone does a better job of closing the road.
Sorry, no stamps yet today, but I thought you might be interested in what was going on here in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I tried to give you a good description.
If anyone else is experiencing flooding, tell us about it! I'd love to hear. And please be safe!
Lately I've been trying to identify and file various Commonwealth items, so I may have some questions soon for all of you, as you are so knowledgable and helpful. But it will have to wait until my internet connection at home is back up, so I have use of my scanner.
posted by suzi @ 7:43 AM
2 comments
