The Flood Waters Are Rising

It has been flooding here in Rockford. Our town has been declared a national disaster area.

My husband called me about 5:30-6:00 this morning, and informed me that the Army Corp of Engineers was at the Alpine dam. This was not good. There was a major flood here a year ago, and the dam was feared to be unable to withstand the additional pressure. Now it appears to be happening again.

By 6am, I had walked to the corner and peeked in the direction of the park, which I discovered was completely submerged. The flood waters were now just around the corner from my house.

I turned on the tv to hear what was happening in town. Sadly, I watched pictures of my closest Logli, it's parking lot under three feet of water. They announced Charles Street and Broadway were closed. Then they announced 11th Street, the street my company is on, was closed (but not that far south). How was I going to get to work? I figured I would have to take the long way around. Then I started hearing road closures at Sandy Hollow and South Alpine. At this point I'm thinking of Mulford as a possible route to work.

At 6:30 or so, I left a message at work, explaining that the roads were shutting down in my area, but I would still try to get there as best I could.

I called my mother-in-law, who was going to watch my son for the day. As I was talking to her, I overheard the tv announce that Chelsea and Guilford were closed due to a sink hole. That was on my way to her house. They also announced State and Alpine was closed! Holy cow, for that intersection to be closed, this had to be bad. I planned to be on the road by 7am, giving me an hour to make a normally 15 minute drive.

Getting to MIL's house was interesting. The traffic was being diverted away from Alpine, right down Rural, which I needed to take, only in the opposite direction. I had no one on my side of the street, and breezed along easily. However, the opposite lane was bumper to bumper pretty much from Fairview to Alpine.

MIL was getting water in the basement, but nothing major, just a little. They were higher than the nearby dam, so they were safe if that overflowed.

I headed for work, deciding to head straight east instead of south. I drove along the edge of Mauh-nah-tee0see golf course, unsure if the water was going to lap over the edge of the road in some places. The little foot bridge near the road looked like it was floating in the middle of a pond. I got to Mulford, heading south, and cruised along nicely. I saw traffic lights out at Newburg, but it all moved well. Then I saw a police car on the side of the road, and quickly scanned to see why. That's when I saw the railroad tracks. The earth had been washed away under the tracks, leaving the rails suspended over thin air. Yikes! I turned west, to swing back toward work. The road was submerged, but not by much. I saw a bunch of cars risk the soggy roadway successfully, so I chanced it. I had no intention of going that way on my return trip however.

As I drove the rest of the way to work, I heard that State and Fairview was now under water! It had been fine just a few minutes ago! Then they announced the closing of State Street, at Fairview, Alpine and Trainer Roads! That was not good at all. By the time I got to work, I was not at all sure I could get home again.

At work, I checked a website for a local tv station. It listed an evacuation of my neighborhood! I phoned a neighbor, who knew nothing about it, but she informed me the police were driving down our street, and parked at the end of it. Oh no!

That's when I thought about my dog.

I told my boss that my street was being evacuated, and she told me I might as well stay, because they'll never let me in. I insisted I had to go home, to try to rescue my puppy, trapped in his kennel. She let me go. The general manager stopped me on my way out the door, and told me to call if I needed any help. What a nice guy!

I managed to weave my way home, avoiding all the closed roads. I immediately started packing up computers, and gathering any personal items I wanted to rescue. My husband joined me, and dismantled the kennel so we could take the dog to my MIL's.

The police did come (loudly!) banging on our door. They insisted we leave as soon as possible and get to higher ground. They were getting reports that Alpine Dam was going to burst, it was just a matter of time. All that water would follow the path of Keith Creek, putting our house right in the danger zone. So much for the "voluntary" evacuation we heard about on the radio. The police were rather insistant. "Leave now!"

It was wild driving away from the house. The streets looked like a mass evacuation. Everyone was slowly making their way to higher ground. Very eerie!

Police were everywhere, directing traffic, and trying to get as many people out of the path of the dam as they could. My husband and I braced ourselves for the idea that our house could be slammed with a title wave of water.

We were both driving, Dh following me, until we spotted a street that we often used as a shortcut. No one appeared to be using it! We both cut out of the traffic and zipped up the street. We got to MIL's house in record time, avoiding all the horrible traffic.

At MIL's, we heard the news. The dam was near breaking point. They said the water was near the spill-over stage. At that point, the dam would become unstable, and they expected it to rupture. But they decided to do a slow release of the water instead. This lowered the water level in the dam by 1-1/2 feet in a half hour. That aleviated the stress on the unstable dam, and averted the crisis.

Quickly, the roads began to open up again. I headed back to work. All our belongings were kept at the ready, in case we need to grab them again.

More rain is expected tonight.