Day 1291: Floods!

The rain started last evening and didn't stop till mid afternoon today.  At 1:00 am Steve left the house to help with Westfield flooding, but he never made it.  The center of Brocton was flooded so Julius had him work there instead.  A couple feet of water flowed through the center of town sweeping away cars and collecting debris.  The creek overflowed and gouged out chunks of Lake Rd.  He finally got home for the first time around 8:00 am.

Of course, I rarely sleep when he's out on calls, especially floods.  I remember too well his close call in 2009 in Silver Creek.  Molly must have seen the lights on because she started crying when he left and cried all night long.

He was telling me about the damage in Brocton and Westfield and all the flooded basements when I suggested maybe we should check our own basement.  Thank goodness we did because our sump pump had stopped working, maybe just for the last ten minutes, and water had risen to the rim.  Even five more minutes and water would have spilled out all over our basement.  What a close call!

So, my job all day was to monitor the sump pump and I figured I might as well clean the basement while I was there.  Steve, on the other hand, had a very eventful day, most of it in Silver Creek where they again had to evacuate the firehall, village hall and a mobile home park near the creek.

Meanwhile, route 60 was closed between Rt. 83 and Cassadaga, part of the thruway was closed for a few hours, Forest Place was evacuated, the creek overflowed the Water St. bridge.  Lots of damage all over the lake shore region.

I resisted the temptation to go out and photograph the wild waters of Canadaway Creek.  Too many people get in the way, make mistakes and endanger the lives of first responders.  That happened to a gawker in Brocton who tried to get film of the rushing creek.  She slid into the creek, had to be rescued and her foolishness put others at risk.

For a few hours late this afternoon, the sun came out and the pool was calling to me.  I only paddled around to cool off from the humidity.  I had decided today would be a rest day, but I meant from swimming.  There has been no rest for twenty-four hours!

So, Steve finally got home at 10:00.  Now, he needs a long sleep.  Me, too!