Flood day

People running frantically around town, in desperate search for a river crossing. Cars. It's all cars now. Very little foot traffic. the pedestians find it easy to effect a fording. Their reliance is on their cars. Combustion powered, reinforced suspention, variable speed transmission with no-slip traction control that automaticly adjusts wheel speed to maintain optimal control. all shyed from water-bound bridges.

Ok, it's less a failure of technology or people's interface, rather the authorities closed roots to civilian traffic just the same. Ames, my current home town, underwent a deluge. Rain, Rain ever several days. Rain on the road, rain on the river, rain all over the place.  The river spilled it's banks and ran ashore. I dominated the landscape (waterscape) today. It continues to rise. And for the sake of safety authority ristricked access to the major downtowny areas.

I wasn't able to snap dramatic pictures like this one. Most of the pictures from the local paper are quite dramatic. They depict only the most affected areas. But what else should one suspect. All the dry places, people and homes are not the worry or interest. Ames has two rivers that collide into one, just north a few, short block from the above picture. Squaw Creek runs into the west Skunk river where they become the north Skunk River as they run through Des Moines. 

As a rule, one should be wary of build at the confluence of rivers.

But the real issue here is the failure of Ames Munisiple. Waste water is running into the water treatment plant. The Ames Power plant is centrally located in the middle of town.

there.
If it goes underwater, we'll most likely lose power.
Or not.
As American has this thing called a power grid. Where electricities are linked in series such that if one fails or needs to be brought off line the area can maintain power. or something like that. I wouldn't say "failure" either, I'm sure a day or two will see water treatment reactivated. Since i can boil water with or without electricity, I won't worry about me. The Only misfortune of this event I've suffered is not being able to play with the kittens at the local animal shelter.

I don't think i've ever seen someone portage a bike before

'till tomorrow.
-marcus