We are having some pretty significant flooding right now.

[Hey-O]

Be safe

X2!

 

[Sahara]

That seems crazy to think it can rise that high. But they do it.

Ours was a rare combination of events. Our area averages a flood of some sort in the spring about every five years during what is called break up. That is when the ice on the river breaks up and is pushed out by the water into the big lake, which is still frozen for another several weeks.
So the ice has nowhere to go, so it stops and dams up. The water rises, and since ice sort of floats it rises and goes on top of the lake ice. This repeats and repeats until all of the river ice is now on top of the lake ice. This usually takes a day or two and the ice is three to five feet thick at this time. Sometimes it jams up hard and the water has nowhere to go and we flood. My whole town is on pins and needles until this is over. Because it is light around the clock then it is not unusual to have a hundred vehicles driving around at 02:00AM watching the river.
A few years ago a bunch of events came together. We had a cold winter and the ice was as much as eight feet thick. When breakup was happening during one of the ice jam cycles it rained, then the temperature dropped and we had a snow blizzard that froze the ice jam solid. There was nowhere for the water to go so it rose straight up about fifty feet and spread for miles across the land. In our town of about four thousand people over four hundred homes were damaged. The real damage is from thousands of frozen ice blocks, some the size of a semi truck being pushed by the water. Over west of my house by the river about a mile of old growth forest was wiped clean. What was a forest of seventy foot tall black timber got shaved off by the ice and is now as smooth as a golf course. I will never get over the sound of the trees being sheared, it sounded like rifle shots and at time a machine gun. I got PTSD from the experience but not as bad as I got from coming very close to burning up in the big fire two years later. If I was about three minutes quicker they would have swept my ashes up with a broom, but that is a story for another forum.
Then we had two massive forest fires evacuations and a huge propane explosion, all in the space of three years. Our town has never really recovered.

 

[WileE]

I moved out of my old house after being flooded for the 3rd time with the worst being 7" (can't imagine 7 feet) but heard that it got 6 foot in Harvey. It's no fun even with 1" but at least it was 'just' rising water and can only imagine what it was like during Harvey. So far, this house that I own now has never flooded after being here for 40+ years but...thought it might happen during a big tropical storm several years ago. Not sure I could take it now that I'm heading to 75 years of age....

That's scary. We've been fine here for 40+ years as well. There's places in New Jersey that look beautiful, until a heavy rainstorm hits. Then it's flood waters feet high, where it covers the stop sign on the road. You're spot on, why would we even consider moving to an "unknown" situation.

 

[Cranky]

Ours was a rare combination of events. Our area averages a flood of some sort in the spring about every five years during what is called break up. That is when the ice on the river breaks up and is pushed out by the water into the big lake, which is still frozen for another several weeks.
So the ice has nowhere to go, so it stops and dams up. The water rises, and since ice sort of floats it rises and goes on top of the lake ice. This repeats and repeats until all of the river ice is now on top of the lake ice. This usually takes a day or two and the ice is three to five feet thick at this time. Sometimes it jams up hard and the water has nowhere to go and we flood. My whole town is on pins and needles until this is over. Because it is light around the clock then it is not unusual to have a hundred vehicles driving around at 02:00AM watching the river.
A few years ago a bunch of events came together. We had a cold winter and the ice was as much as eight feet thick. When breakup was happening during one of the ice jam cycles it rained, then the temperature dropped and we had a snow blizzard that froze the ice jam solid. There was nowhere for the water to go so it rose straight up about fifty feet and spread for miles across the land. In our town of about four thousand people over four hundred homes were damaged. The real damage is from thousands of frozen ice blocks, some the size of a semi truck being pushed by the water. Over west of my house by the river about a mile of old growth forest was wiped clean. What was a forest of seventy foot tall black timber got shaved off by the ice and is now as smooth as a golf course. I will never get over the sound of the trees being sheared, it sounded like rifle shots and at time a machine gun. I got PTSD from the experience but not as bad as I got from coming very close to burning up in the big fire two years later. If I was about three minutes quicker they would have swept my ashes up with a broom, but that is a story for another forum.
Then we had two massive forest fires evacuations and a huge propane explosion, all in the space of three years. Our town has never really recovered.

Dayam!! A tornado has come through the neighborhood twice with the latest one being a couple of years or so ago. Thing is, they happen quick and then gone. I was on the edge of both with one being just a few houses away. That one was small and damaged some trees and roof tops but the last one was bigger and wasn't as close but I got some 75 mph wind from it. Ya get scared for a few moments and it's gone.....thinking back, there was a 3rd one in late 84. I was the only one with damage though. It was really small but it picked up my canoe and sailed it into a 70 Challenger driver's door. The door was history but the canoe was undamaged. Glad the Challenger was there because if it wasn't, the canoe would have probably came through a back window of the house since it was right in line.

 

[QuickBpBp]

Tornado watch here. Have not had power for last 2 1/2 hrs…