Flood update

My Dad and brother Von had to evacuate the cows yesterday. There was a farmer up in Keswick Ridge that had gotten sick a few years ago and had to sell off all his cows so he was able to house them. He had room for 70 milkers and that was how many the farm has. The other cows and calves were all able to be boarded at other farms who were not in danger of flooding. Von called last night at about 10 to say that he had just finished milking. The poor dears are usually milked by 4:30. And after breastfeeding and having been engorged a time or two, all I have to say is ouch. I hope that none of them get mastitis. Dad is staying at the house. There is about two feet of water in the basement as of this morning and they lost power sometime during the night. I am hoping that Von was able to take some pictures. If he did, I will post some.

Last night after supper, Bill took the kids down to see the water. The road leading to the bridge was blocked off and they took a trip down the median strip.

The building to the right is the city hall, to the left is the provincial court house.

This is Officers Square which is beside the library. There is still a bit of dry land to be seen.

There used to be train tracks that ran through town. Most places where the road met the track the cars had to stop but there is one place where 4 streets meet and at that spot is an underpass. You can see the water spilling in in the lower left side of the picture. While Bill and the kids were down there, they saw two cars that tried to get through that stalled. Some people think that if you go through water quickly you will make it to the other side. All that happens is that the splashing from your tiers soaks your engine. You need to go through slowly and that only works if the water is lower than your engine.

The kids came home about the same time that mom and I got back from doing groceries. They were cold, had wet feet, and were wound up tighter than a spring.

So this morning Bill, Liam, and I went to see the progression of the water. Here is where Brunswick Street meets Carleton Street. This is the same place that I took the picture yesterday but viewed from the other side. The post to the left is were I was standing yesterday.

Here is Officer's Square again. It is completely filled up.

Here we are back at the over pass. See yesterday's pictures for a comparison.

This is the bike rack seen in other pictures. The brown stuff is debris that is caught up on the first rung. You can just see the other rungs peeking out of the water to the right of the debris.

The library and parking lot again as well as the road that had a bit of water on it yesterday.

Thew view looking up river. The on ramps to the bridge are now closed off and traffic on Westmorland Street (the only access to the bridge) is backed up for blocks. It was backed up last night from well before 4 until well after 10. It is the same today.

The other side of the foot bridge. Liam though that the amount of water was amazing. It was cold out there too. The temperature is just above freezing and there was quite a stiff breeze.

When we left the walking bridge I stopped by the Armoury where the Cadets train and the fellow there said that they had 4 feet of water in the basement. The school is about 20 feet from their building and we stopped there next. There was a fellow posted outside keeping an eye on a generator who said that as of last look there was only an inch of water in the basement. I am hoping beyond hope that it doesn't reach the 6 feet that was predicted. Some of the things that needed to be left behind are a couple of large slop buckets of clay. When you are throwing, there are usually bits of clay that come off on your hands and a bit left on the wheel after you remove you pot. There is also some clay that comes off when the bottoms of the pots are trimmed to make the nice feet that you usually see. This all ends up in large garbage cans and is eventually recycled. The elevator stopped before they were brought up. If the water gets up to the top of those, the mess will be triple what it would be.

The powers that be still don't know if it has reached it's peak yet. They think not.

There are a lot of roads that are closed. You can see a list here if you are so inclined. And if you would like to see a contour map of where the water will rise to at 8.5 meters you can see that here. They expect the water to rise to at least 8.6 meters.

And through this all, Mira made challah bread. She is turning into quite the baker!
Check back later for more up dates.