Missouri River Flooding

June 4, 2011

June 4, 2011

June 6, 2011

Well, here we are on the banks of the slowly flooding Missouri River, still trying to get our banks loaded with rock to protect ourselves, but the rumors are flying and speculation is everywhere.  I have yet to feel as if I have one bit of concrete information to make any informed decisions about what actions to take and I feel like a wreck with all this fear and uncertainty.  The first picture above was taken Saturday, as the barge, which had done our initial rock about a month ago, is now back doing more rock on each bank, after a special $$$ assessment on every homeowner. This time, if the money holds out, the plan is to rock all the way up the bank, but in stages, because they want to make sure to have at least enough to cover where the water level will rise.  In the back of these first two photos, you can see the very low level of rock....shock....that's the TOP or what's left of many feet of rock we got a month ago.  I was standing on a neighbor's deck when I took this Saturday, waiting for them to add our new rock to the level of what you see in the front of the photo.  I think I heard the water rose about a foot between Saturday and Sunday. The last photo above is looking across the river at Nebraska, slowly going under a bit more each day.  So strange, so surreal. The frightening part is that they haven't even reached the full level of $150,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) of water release from the dam up in Yankton.  I think that will be on Friday.

I don't think anyone expects the water to go over our banks, but we're still worried about erosion, about water filling our basements and about septic systems failing, not to mention if the water cuts in around us and floods the one road in and out.  Of course, there are others who say the banks will erode and our houses will just fall into the water.  There is plenty to worry about....we did get flood insurance the other day, but it isn't effective for 30 days.  So, we'll just start getting essentials out of the studios and wait for real information.  Meanwhile, plenty of other folks have moved everything out and are evacuating, but there has been no information yet that would indicate such a necessity. Fear and panic have set in.

This last shot is from the backyard and looks at the windows of my studio....John's is adjacent and his windows are under the deck.  It's called a half basement I think, as those studio windows are at eye level, so at least we're not all the way underground...but still plenty vulnerable. 

I'm having a free shipping sale in my shop through next Sunday if anyone would like to take any work off my hands....it's going to have get moved out someplace....I'd be pleased to ship work off to happy buyers!

There's a coupon code to use at checkout: MISSOURIFLOOD, if you're interested!

Stay tuned....I suppose I'll have more news by Friday and I'm crossing my fingers it's good news and not bad.  Thanks so much for all your support and concern everyone!

Cheers...