Floods of 2008

Many of you must have noticed that I have been a bit too quiet. There has been so much going on in my life in the past three weeks that I have not had a chance to do anything. Have a lot of things to do but time seems not to be my friend these days. However, now I think I can breathe a bit easily.  My little town of Clarksville, MO has been flooded, which I’m sure many of you must have seen on the news. It was not quite as devastating as the flood of 1993 but almost there. 

The little town sits directly on the Mississippi river right next to the Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam #24. Flood stage for the river is at 25 where the waters rose to 39. It took a lot of people in town and outside to bag sand and protect most of the buildings. The spirit of helping each other was amazing. My dh along with several other friends did nothing but cook for hundreds day in and day out where others did nothing but fill sand bags.

The first picture shows the front street all under water. The brick building on the corner is the Post office which was temporarily moved to a higher location.  The second picture is a bit further down front street showing the corner of the Masonic Lodge. Those sand bag walls are higher than I am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third picture is of the City park. The fourth is of the front street taken from the back side of the Motel. It shows the city park all under water with the National Guard keeping the pumps going day and night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the last picture shows the Lock and Dam. You can see the water all the way upto the Dam. I have tons more pictures but just uploading them made me quite sad and helpless. Friends were lucky that not much was hurt but the cleaning that will have to be done is enormous. The water as of today did start to go down but not fast enough. My heart goes out to all who helped and pitched in to save buildings that are well over 200 years old. The spirit of every one in town has been amazing. True, disasters do bring everyone together. I truly hope the next flood is not as devastating as this one.