It started raining a few days ago and it forgot to stop! Tracey and I decided to go out for breakfast during the monsoon rains yesterday and she brought along her camera to take pictures of the flooding. These first few pictures are of our property under water at the south end near the “Edge of the World”.
This shot is at the culvert at the very south end of our property and the one after that is the road continuing on past the Andrew’s home and up the hill to Parrish’s. The water is just barely out on the road and the Andrew’s home is almost surrounded.
These next few shots are while driving east on Allentown Rd. past I-155 just before you get to Fourth St. going into Morton. The farm house on the right is just past the bridge.
The next two shots are at the intersection of Fourth St. and Broadway Rd. The water was across the road in several places and probably about 6 - 8 inches deep in spots. You can see it pouring over the edge of the road and really eroding all along that length.
This is after breakfast on our way home. We went down Toepfer Rd. south towards Tremont. The water runs under the road through two large culverts and there are posts at the exit where you see the water foaming up over the posts. I don’t know what the posts are for —— maybe to slow it down or something —— I don’t know.
This is a shot of the drainage coming out from under the road and heading off into the fields to the west.
We had to stop here because the road was closed. The water was flooding across the road all the way up to the curve.
These last two shots are from our sun room looking east across the road in front of our house. You can see Dillon Creek is really out of its banks and filling up the field across from us. Let’s just hope our sump pump keeps working!
There’s another little story to go along with the flood pictures. When we turned down Toepfer Rd. there was a sawhorse at the left edge of the road with a Road Closed sign on it. There was a red truck sitting behind this sawhorse and it turned around to follow us as we went down the road toward where it was flooded.
This idiot pulled up behind us the first time we stopped and climbed right up on our bumper. I was going to back up to the driveway behind us but we couldn’t do that after dirt-for-brains started dogging us. We went a little further to just before where the water was across the road and Tracey started to take some more pictures.
The guy who was driving the truck starts yelling at Tracey asking her what she is doing on this road, didn’t she know the road was closed, where did she live, did she own property around here, etc. The road obviously wasn’t closed until you got down to where it was flooded. And if it was closed what was he and others driving on it for? In fact, a white panel truck was on the road just ahead of us and he didn’t harass them.
There are road closed signs all over Springfield Rd. but obviously the road is only closed where it needs to be, people drive on the rest of it well past the signs. Tracey told him we were turning around and we did, although it was difficult with his truck right up on our bumper. I don’t know who this officious bastard was but he had no authority to be yelling at Tracey. I suspect he was a Tremont city worker. I don’t know because he didn’t offer any identification.
If he was from the city of Tremont then he was about a mile outside the Tremont city limits and he had no business even closing the road there. Who or Whatever the jerk was he had no business chasing people down the road and harassing them. He immediately turned around and followed us back up Toepfer when we left and then down Allentown, so I went all the way to Springfield and then turned around and went back the opposite way past him to see if he would turn around and follow us again.
He didn’t, but I was going to call 911 if he had. I drove down the same road about four hours later and it was open. Go figure. If they were concerned the flooding was going to damage the road you would have thought they would have at least inspected for damage before re-opening the road.
I think some self-absorbed asshole took it upon himself to close the road and re-open it again. Whatever. It is a certainty that the moron who was yelling at us wasn’t in the least concerned about our safety —— he was just concerned about his self assumed authority in patrolling a public road.
My first inclination was to get out of the car and give him a piece of my mind but am now glad I decided against it. It would have proved nothing and probably would have led to further nonsense. Still, it would have been pleasant to tell the stuffed shirt to stick it where the moon don’t shine!
MjL 15 Sep 2008, 5:48 a.m.
Holy crap, you’re underwater back there. I bet that’s been fun to drive in
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