Wet, wet, wet

It never rains but it pours, literally for us right now.  On Sunday afternoon it started raining and did that straight through until Thursday morning.  After missing the worst of Irene two other tropical depressions conspired to dump an almost unprecedented quantity of water on central and northeast Pennsylvania.  Pinched in between the remnants of tropical storm Lee to the west and Hurricane Katia far out in the Atlantic, moisture from the south had nowhere to go except over a narrow band over the state.  Fortunately we live on a hill, but parts of our town are already flooded a nail-biting few hours are coming up as the Susquehanna River, the main artery of this part of the world, approaches its crest.  Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated throughout the region.

It's a fifty or one hundred year flood, and is being compared to the terrible flooding caused by tropical storm Agnes in 1972.  Indeed when large parts of th city of Wilkes-Barre were evacuated today, rather than give a list of places that were affected, people were told instead that places flooded by Agnes were to evacuate.  Amazingly that was as specific as it got - if you weren't around thirty nine years ago the local TV station was recommending that you ask your neighbours.  It seems bizarre to me, but then Mrs Walles pointed out that people are like that around here.  If you ask for directions they will include landmarks that haven't existed for years.  "Oh, you want to go there?  Well, you know where so-and-so used to be?"  You're just supposed to know.

Luckily our fate isn't bound up in one of these vague proclamations. I'm most worried about our water becoming contaminated, especially as there doesn't seem to be a very reliable way to find out if we have to boil it.  Maybe you're just supposed to know that, too, from the way the wind is blowing or something.  I'm keeping an eye on the TV just in case they mention it there instead.  That is one revelation in this situation, the round the clock coverage by the local TV of the flooding including warnings and notices specific to our county and town.  Much better than huddling around the radio, as I probably would be in the same situation in New Zealand.

At least this time there are flood banks and, as long as they hold, the devastation caused by Agnes won't be repeated.  It's bad enough, though, for those affected.  And though we sometimes complain about the steep roads leading up to it, we are very thankful for our little house on the hill right now.