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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

March 12, 2011

A Pictorial Journal of a River on the Rise

It's Saturday, March 12, and I took another series of photos as the river continues to rise.  I'm going to post some repeat photos here because I want to have one post that covers from when I first started watching (it was already way up by then) to when it crests and begins to recede.  And I'm trying to group them so each set shows a similar view.

These first pictures are of the main entrance area to the riverfront park area (this is the entrance where they've already closed the floodwall):

This is a photo from last year, when the river was up but not real high - probably covering the lower level sidewalks.

 Same area - taken Thursday, March 1- shows the same area with the flowerpots and stairs still above water.

Friday, March 12 - the base of the flagpole is still uncovered, but the huge flowerpots closest to the river just have their little topknots of plants showing.

This morning (Saturday) - all the flowerpots and stairs are gone and the water has crept onto the circular roadway.

The next set are of the area near the boat ramp which is upriver at the other entrance through the floodwall:
Taken Thursday - I decided to use the white tree as a measuring stick and I could swear I had a picture of it with the trunk showing, but since I wasn't there until Thursday, I guess I'm dreaming.  

I don't have a Friday picture - this is Saturday and  you can just see the tops of the benches in this area.

Another Saturday picture - this is my white tree measuring stick.

Next is a set of the boat ramp area, mainly because all the deep water signs kind of tickled me - sort of a "duh!" moment!

This is another picture from last March.  It shows the start of the boat ramp slanting down to the water (along with a lot of busy ducks)

Friday's picture taken from my car window as I was leaving the upper parking area shows that entire area now under water - the ducks don't seem to notice though - they're still swimming around here and there...

And this picture was taken this morning - no one swam out to move the signs...

Just two more...
I was still walking around on these sidewalks Friday...

And now, they're gone - the tops of those benches are on the "away from the river" side of those sidewalks, so it's covered the grass on the left of the sidewalks, the sidewalks, and is well on it's way up from them.  

I don't know that even when it crests it will reach the floodwalls - the Corps of Engineers, along with building the floodwall also has installed all kinds of controls on the flow of the river so that hopefully it will never again be as horrible as the 1937 flood.  I did read today that a number of our major roads are flooded - the road I used to take to get into Huntington is flooded, but that's not too unusual - it has two very low spots.  But U.S. Rt. 60 is also flooded out towards Barboursville and that's a major highway into Huntington.

4 comments:

January said...

Wow. Just...wow. That's a whoooooole lotta water. Although, I guess recent events in the Pacific help to put "whole lotta water" in perspective. Still, keep us posted, and never drive through running water no matter HOW shallow it looks! :)

Christopher said...

That is quite a fascinating progression of images... Really illustrates the rising waters, and your grouping of similar vantage points makes it clear.
Flood walls or no, Huntington is so lucky it is a slowly rising river. Having seen the footage of the tsunami in Japan reaching 6 miles inland from the coast as a wall of water and debris... Nature truly is an unstoppable force, in the end!

Mary Lynne said...

I agree totally about Japan and the other areas suffering through such an unbelievable event. I feel kind of foolish with my flood watch because of that, but I can't help but find it fascinating...

Christopher said...

PS---where does all this water come from? ie, is there a particular part of the country upriver that had major rains, etc, so this was expected?

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