Sister/flood update

[eee1313]

Things are looking better for yakgirl, but things in her town are looking worse. It seems that a dam about 1/2 mile from her house may break at any moment, which means that there will be "catastrophic flooding" in her town. Hundreds of people are being evacuated. Luckily my sister's house is at a much higher elevation than the river (seriously, where she lives in RI is crazy-hilly, especially for a Midwesterner like me). So other than basement flooding her house will be fine, unlike the people at the bottom of her hill.

My concern right now is that all the roads leading OFF of her hill are being shut down. I asked if she's even going to be able to leave her neighborhood if the dam breaks, and she doesn't know. But the water in their basement has gone down to just a few inches, and their electricity is still going. Right now they have to shower at the neighbors' house (still no hot water), but as she said they're much better off than a lot of people in their area. While I was talking to her on the phone earlier, she saw eight deer run past their backyard, almost certainly in search of dry ground. Poor deer, there's no emergency shelter for them.

yakgirl sent me a link to the local news report on the flooded river and potential dam break. Right now, the force of the water is so strong that it sheared off one side of a building. Damn! And dam.

In the meantime, she and her boys are comparing the state of their town to this scene from Ponyo. Good thing the boys are enjoying it.

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Oh man... thanks for the update. I've been worried about her since I read your other post earlier today.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Good grief! I was up in RI last week and again Monday, but none of my family are having problems, I think because they're on high ground and not near any of the rivers. So I had no idea it was as bad as this (and your previous post, which I skimmed back to find). My fingers are crossed that your sis will be fine and everything will be under control soon, though that dam sounds really scary.