Photos:
1. Top left: Coolest mushroom
2. Top right: My rainboots
3. Middle left: View from the Trailside Museum at the top of a hill leading to the (submerged) parking lot
4. Bottom right: A major intersection one block from my house (click on it to see full view and sandbag wall).
As all of you in Chi-town know it's been RAINING! Apparently at O'Hare yesterday there was a new daily rainfall record of 6.64" (weather.com says we got 8.97" in our zip code which seems almost unbelievable), with 3 inches on Friday and another 1-4" today. That's a lot of rain. I normally live 1/4 mile from a river. Now, I live about 75 feet from the river. Our sump pump has been going on every 3 minutes for 3 days now (so far no water in our basement). I have been assured by neighborhood long timers that it was much worse in '87 and the houses on my street didn't flood (the previous rainfall record at O'Hare was from 1987 and we beat it yesterday!). Hmmmm. I'm not convinced, although technically we don't live in a flood plain and aren't eligible for flood insurance.
The river and pond have crossed a major street a block away and they are moving eastward, creating a stream down Chicago Ave. The fire department and others are out there trying to stop the water with sandbags. And it's still raining. It's quite a show. I truly appreciate those who are on duty and others who undoubtedly got called in to do this wet and hard work!
While out gawking, the girls and I saw the coolest mushroom. It looks like one of those fancy cabbages people use for landscaping in the fall, except it was bright orange and yellow. Wow. About 12" across. It really stuck out on this gray day.
Happy rain day. I hope you are all warm, dry, and cozy wherever you are today.
2 comments:
Update: several streets are closed. The intersection in my photo is not flooded anymore, but the water is held back by sandbags. Our neighborhood has been a gawker's paradise today: high water, lots of big trucks, firemen (!), flashing lights, etc. And there have been a lot of "tourists" in the area.
I still can't get over those pictures! We do have water in our basement, but this is no surprise - it happens a lot. It's mostly just cement down there, and everything is off the floor. It will just drain away mostly on it's own.
I'm so glad to see the sun today! - and even more excited that DL has a new place to skate - hurray!!
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