Lane is a small city surrounded on three sides by 2 branches of the Pottawatomie River. And now the rains have come.
The following pictures are are series of shots around Lane. They take place over 2 days- Friday the 29th (which is one day after the rain) and Saturday the 30th (it started raining again). To show where Friday ends and Saturday begins, the two days will be separated by a photo of phal orchid 'Uniwai Blush' which is blooming right now (whoo hoo!) Please read the captions because they explain where the photos are taken.
To get started, click on "slideshow" which is right above the first photo. Some photos require more reading time. Move your mouse and a "pause" button appears.
http://picasaweb.google.com/NuttySeedling/Flood20070630?authkey=ulx7FqAJInw
O/T The rains came down and the floods came up
It is still raining...lol...hard
Is your property okay? I was in a flood 4 years ago and it was awful. I feel bad for you and others in your town.
I've heard that parts of Texas and Kansas are experiencing major flooding and here we are down here needing lots of rain! Mother Nature sure can be cruel .... they are saying we will need a good Tropical Storm (Hopefully no Hurricane's) to replenish the water supply to where it should be! Hope you and your family fared the flooding without any damage. Stay safe.
Going to watch your slideshow now,
Lin
Amazing Photo's Cjolene!! A very scary situation! I've experienced Hurricane's before, but never anything like floods .... very scary indeed! My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in the area who may be affected by the flood waters!
I feel rotten about the ones who's houses have flooded. That one guy in the picture- he just knew his house was going to get flooded. It wasn't when I took the picture, but it was on Saturday. I didn't take a picture of his house...couldn't get to it. It was pretty bad.
There aren't many roads out of town. This is a pretty rural area. The West road has a bridge out. You can see the North road is out and the East road is probably out by now. lol So if someone has to go to the hospital or to the store or something, they've got to drive 30 minutes Southwest (because they won't be able to take any backroads- they are just dirt...no gravel even...minimum maintenance roads) and then drive an hour North. Crazy.
No, my house isn't flooded. The last picture shows that our house is safe. lol We have our gutters set up to drain in the cistern, though, which is full to the brim. Not sure what will happen when it overflows- it's right next to the house. Yikes! lol I'm sure we'll be fine, though. ; D
Just curious...is anyone else familiar with that song that goes "The rains came down and the floods came up?" I think it's called The Wise Man and the Foolish Man.
Wow! It would pay to have a boat in those situations! Sure hope your cistern doesn't overflow. I'm afraid I'd be out there digging a ditch to have the water drain in the direction away from the house! If the ground is so saturated, I guess it can't drain .... there's nowhere else for the water to go ... it will just stand and continue to rise. I will keep y'all in thought and prayer for sunshine and blue skies.
I would be more than happy to ship you some rain, plantladylin. Get it...SHIP it? Over water?!? LOL!!! ; D
Okay, I'll keep this cheesiness to myself. ; D
I don't believe I have ever heard the song. I hope people are better than the ones around us when it flooded. There were people that rented boats just so there kids could see what was going on. Not one person would help us get anything out of the flood. I just hate the thought of anyone being in a flood. It ruins so much that can't be replaced. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Now I will shut up and get off of the soap box. Good Luck and keep on dippin' that water.
I just uploaded some updated pictures...yet it is STILL raining. I'm actually starting to worry about the cistern dealio.
I also managed to get a video of how fast the water is going. The East exit out of town is flooded. And more houses are going underwater. I didn't post all of them. I said before in the picture post that everyone is outside watching the water. When they saw the houses going underwater, they all started helping. It seems like everyone is outside moving furniture. I would love to as well, but my back still hurts from when I got ran over by a car in January. It's just not healing up. But anyways, this is such a small town- pop. 250, but we have 3 preachers. It's a very Christian community and very helping. This is the kind of town where people can (and do...lol) go next door to get a cup of sugar.
I was just told we were on the news in Missouri. Honestly, I didn't think with our town being so small that we would make it even on the local news. So I'm really surprised it's airing out of state.
http://picasaweb.google.com/NuttySeedling/Flood200706302?authkey=2_RAd6o8f4Q
Wow! I will pray that the rains stop very soon up your way! Unbelievable photo's and video you got cjolene!
A lot of folks in Florida and the South have Flood Insurance and it's mandantory that you have Flood Insurance if you live in a flood zone .... Florida is so low you'd think most of the state would be in a flood zone, but it's actually not. Our home is on high enough ground that we are not required to have Flood Insurance. We have a Hurricane Rider on our policy but we would still have to pay a certain percentage of damages. If a hurricane causes flood waters to come inside the house, well we are out of luck. We would need to have separate Flood Insurance for that!
Just curious...is anyone else familiar with that song that goes "The rains came down and the floods came up?" I think it's called The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
Learned that song in Primaries in Sunday School Beverly Hills Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas
a long,long,long time ago.
Matthew 7:24
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock."
Just google and you can actually hear the song.
cjolene, so sorry to see all the flooding in your area. Your photos say it all. I do hope we can get some of your rain our way though as everything here is bone dry deep down as far as you can dig.
The other day my son called from Austin to say not to worry about him........they had gotten 18" of rain in one day in Leander......a suburb of Austin.......I have friends in Marble Falls which is built on a lake north of Austin.........both sets of friends had 8 ft of water in their homes........not perfectly sure but i do think that 11 people drowned........
Thanks for your great photos.........I don't mind hurricanes as I have grown up with them.........but I am terrified of flooding..........
I live about 1/2 mile from a creek.......when i was in high school it rained 14" in one day and the ground was already wet...........the water came up to the old house I am living in today..........my brother and his friends got into boats with their guns and shot rattlesnakes out of the trees.........they came home with a boat full of dead rattlesnakes......that is a boy thing.......won't find me looking for rattlesnakes up in the trees during a flood!!!!
Thanks again for sharing good photos!!!!
gail
Oh my goodness ... Snakes! Yikes! I had not even thought of that! If we ever have floods like that, I am outta here ... don't know how I will get out, or where I will go ... but if I have to sprout wings, I am outta here! ooooh ... Snakes! Just the thought of Snakes possibly falling out of the trees, not to mention swimming in the water ... ugh!
Gail, I'm so glad your son is okay! I know some areas have really been having a bad time with floods. I've been in Florida for 40 years and weatheredTropical Storms, Hurricanes and threats of Hurricanes ... grew up on the Coast of Virginia, and only remember one Hurricane hitting there in the 1950's where a tree came through the roof. We've been very Blessed and fortunate and have not had any damage done to our house during storms here. Lots of trees lost in Hurricane's but some folks have lost everything! Katrina and Andrew being the worse ever storm damage in this country I think. I remember going through Louisiana, Mississippi and the Gulf areas after Hurricane Camille hit ( the storm was Oct 1969) we went through that area in February 1970 - four months after that Hurricane and we were speechless ... could not even say a word. Neither my husband or I had ever seen such devastation. The Interstate was gone in places, huge chunks of cement and cars had to detour off to side roads. There were huge Ocean Liner Ships tossed out of the Gulf of Mexico across the highway more than a mile away ... just laying on their sides on the ground! Those sights will remain in my memory forever. Hurricanes are nothing to fool with. I've seen what damage a Cat 1 Storm can do ... I just cannot imagine staying through a catagory 4 or 5! My husband boards up the house but he knows if there's ever a storm predicted of a cat 4 heading to our area, I will be on the first plane out. We are only about 1 1/2 miles from the Ocean.
Well ... I am really getting off topic here ... the flooding stories just got me thinking and remembering. Take care Y'all ... and be safe.
I think now is a very good time to come visit Texas....I just washed a comforter & bought new pillows...come on missy... :-)
It has been raining here in Texas since we moved back in April...I went an entire year without ANY rain... now Ican't get it to stop..lol
Hugs & Prayers for everyone there....
MsC
Lin...........since we are now on hurricanes, I have always loved hurricanes.......I am lured to them. When I lived in Houston and we would hear that a hurricane was going to hit this area, I would jump in my car and take off to come home for the event.
One storm (no wonder my husband left later) i was 7 months pregnant and had a 17 month old when i made my husband drive us to Mother's house right down the road from where I now live. The winds were clocking in around 100 mph when we arrived.
You couldn't walk so we crawled on the ground. Do I need to tell you how mad my parents and husband were at me??????????
I vividly remember Carla coming in.......i was in college and a big oak tree that was
taller than the sorority house 3 stories high fell into the house!!!!!!!!! no one was hurt because we had been ordered to the sleeping porches earlier in the evening.
We have been through many a hurricane but the worst was Celia back in the early 70's.....It was a direct hit on Portland and Corpus Christi......My brother and his family lived on the water in Portland. The winds were clocked at over 165 mph when it hit, but they had not been predicted to be that high so lots of people were having hurricane parties waiting for this one to come on in.
My brother had bought his home from the subdivision builder's as the builder's home for his own family and his home was the only one standing in Portland...........I was there and watched the wind take a second story door off the hinges and throw it over the balcony to the living room. We literally watched the neighbors' homes fall down one by one....There was nothing fun about this storm.......it was a tragedy for all.
I would never wish to experience an Andrew or katrina.(or wish it on my worst enemy)...........but the smaller ones can get your adrenaline pumping mighty fast!!!!
Whoo hoo!!! I'm coming right over!! lol
Just a few more pictures... I'm shutter-happy, can you tell? lol This is mostly for comparison from Friday's shots (the remnants of Thursday's rain).
http://picasaweb.google.com/NuttySeedling/Flood200706303?authkey=8jsctXFO0_o
The news was saying that we're in for more storms. lol But they also said that another small city an hour South of us, Lacygne (pronounced Lay-zeen), the streets are completely under water- the people can't leave. Those who leave the city to go to work (about 3/4 of the working population) can't go home. The news said it was like a castle with a huge moat. Crazy!!!
But at least their town has a store, so we know they won't starve. We only have a bar. I guess that means we wouldn't have to worry about anyone dying sober. lol!! just kidding!!
The news also said that the whole area South of us is flooded. Um...that's was our only way out. lol I suppose we'll just be hanging around the house for a while. I guess if we need anything, we'll get to see cool helicopters. ; )
Whoa, I didn't whoo hoo mean about the hurricane...sorry, I posted right when you did.
No one but me feels this way about hurricanes, cjolene.............besides, I love your photos.......going to look at the new ones, now......
some more good photos..........I love the way your site displays them.....gail
Thanks. ; ) I'm a huge fan of Picasa.
I think I'd be scared stiff if a hurricane were coming, though. Tornadoes scare me enough.
I got this email from a girl who lives 15 minutes South of me. She said the highway there was closed down. That means Lane is completely cut off from the outside world.
Heres what's going on in Greeley.
They just shut down 169hwy at like 7pm, here at Greeley where the liquor store is its blocked off. The main street in town near the liquor store is mostly covered with water. The water is getting closer to our yard. There is an alley behind our house and the neighbors in that yard are moving stuff out. There are about 12-15 houses in town that are flooded to their doors or higher. Lots of cars under water, huge propane tanks floating away. Roads on the North end and Southwest sides of town are shut down and the houses on them are flooded. We saw some people with water up to their porch trying to move stuff out but they got their truck stuck in their yard in front of their door. Coop is under water, they moved all their tanks and equipment out already.
My dad lives in Lacygne and I called him to see how it looked because I heard on the news that the gas station there was out of gas and the store was running out of bread and milk. His house is near the river and the water is just down the road from him. My grandma is flooded in at their house. My dad thinks that he will be able to get out of town through a north backroad way but I'm not sure if he will be able to.
I didn't know the laura ingals wilder house was there in lane, that's cool, hope is withstands the flood.
A comment was made about flood insurance... I don't know that a soul here carries flood insurance. I know we sure don't.
We can't even get flood insurance here but we can buy wind damage....
Just poked in real quick to let everyone know we're okay. The flooding did come up even more over the night but we are okay. We are still getting a little more rain but it is really light and often switches to sprinkling so there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, the waters are actually starting to recede.
Here's hopefully the last in the series of photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/NuttySeedling/Flood20070701?authkey=hL0nzOwB6pg
And the email I sent my fam / church members:
Well, we woke up today and found that the rain during the night caused the flooding to rise even more. We went exploring today and found the road South of us to be clear after all. Thank heavens! lol I went down to Greeley and took a couple pictures and we were able to go up to Osawatomie (ugh, ugh, ugh...you will groan when you see the photos). Osawatomie has a dike system. And the really sad news is that it worked. Unfortunately, there was just so much water...the police had blocked off all entrances from the highway.
Unfortunately, though, our city sewer thingamabob is under water. We are not to use our toilets or take a shower or anything like that. I really don't understand the details of that...that's boy stuff. You'll have to ask Doug. I just know I can't flush the toilet.
Attached is a satellite image of Lane- not recent, but I'm sending it to give you an idea of where everything is.
The bottom blue circle is the North exit...where the train crossing is. The top blue circle is where the bridge is...where the water is SUPPOSED to be. Ironically, the bridge looks dry from where we can see. And the really deep part (where the flooding was on Friday) is on the OTHER side of the bridge.
The bottom red circle is our house. The top red circle is Bro. Creighton's house. You can see that we are separated by the river.
The yellow circle is the East exit.
So we tried to get to the East part of the river of the East exit to visit Bro. Creighton, but the whole area is flooded. It's flooded to his North, it's flooded to his South, it's flooded to his East, and it's flooded to his West. There is absolutely no way to get to him. He says that his actual house is above water, but he can't go anywhere. The houses around him haven't fared as well, but his house is elevated.
When we came back from our siteseeing (and after I was able to break away from a VERY talkative 90-year old man), we found my brother Allan and his family in our driveway. Guess the photos I've been sending out were too much of a temptation- he wanted to see, too. hahaha jk But he was pretty amazed at all the water and pointed out to me how close we were to getting flooded ourselves (see photo album for that). But thank heavens our house fared well. He also offered his potty, shower, and spare bed to us so we know where to run if we get really stinky. Okay, here's the damage:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NuttySeedling/Flood20070701?authkey=hL0nzOwB6pg
So glad to hear you are hanging in there....prayers for the rain to stop soon.
MsC
Hope you are still okay ... I heard briefly on the news at noon as I was passing through the house, that some town in Kansas was evacuated, but I didn't catch the name of the town. I think it said 3/4 of the town was under water! We are finally getting some much needed rain here today! Thunder and lightning too, which I don't like, but we do need the rain. Hope y'all in Kansas and Texas are beginning to dry out! Stay safe everyone!
Hi Lin. ; ) That would be Osawatomie, 7 miles NE of us. There are pictures in that last album I took- you can only see the 2 story buildings. All the 1-story buildings are under water. Their flood gates broke, so the people there didn't get any warning. Very sad indeed.
CJ That is such terribly sad news about the flooding down your way. Your pictures are heartbreaking.Praying the rains stop soon for you.It is so hard to believe that we are in such a drought here when not too far south of us you are dealing with such terrible flooding.
Nancy
CJ: Yep ... that's the name of the city they showed on our news, and they showed video of all the flooding! I think they said something about another river being 2" from overflowing and flooding the remainder of the town!
We have been praying for rain down here and finally yesterday and today got some good rainfall. I will continue to pray for the rain to end in your area and also for all the folks who've lost so much. It's really scary to see those video's!
Lin
cjolene, you might feel better if you see what happened to this lady and her family....
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/743139/
***********I have never seen hail this large in my entire life!!!!!!!!!
Hi guys. ; ) Well, the Red Cross is here and people are getting fed. The National Guard went to Osawatomie and the families who couldn't find a place to go have moved into the schools (good thing it's summer, eh?) lol
Today is a hot and humid (but sunny!! whoo hoo!) day and it's predicted to be like this again tomorrow. The flooding has already gone down so much, but there is still so much more to go. Doug and I walked around town trying to find people who needed an extra hand scrubbing or whatever but the people seem to be getting the help they need without us. So I've emailed someone I know in Osawatomie this morning (who thankfully did not get flooded) and am waiting for him to tell me where I should go to help out tomorrow.
Doug wanted to take off from work to help, but I guess several of his co-workers are from Osawatomie so they needed Doug to come in.
An old roommate of mine told me she saw Osawatomie on the news in Idaho and my mom-in-law saw it in Arizona. Kinda crazy how it gets around like that. lol
We are expecting more sun tomorrow, then rain, then sun, then more rain. lol I tried blowing some rainclouds Westward and some Eastward (including FL in that) and just a little blow to get to cedarnest Northward. lol Is it working?? ; )
Crazy about the storm in Canada! A couple years ago, I was in Ottawa when it hailed the size of oranges. My crazy mom-in-law lived here then and she tried to go out and get one from the porch- about gave herself a concussion. Probably not the smartest thing, but she put it in her freezer and got to show it to everyone that visited. She was pretty proud of that thing. lol
Osawatomie was on the news here in Florida too. Amazing photos just as you've shown us here on this forum CJ. I sure hope there was no loss of life there or in Texas which has also had a lot of bad flooding in some areas. I always hear of folks getting washed away in their cars when trying to cross flooded roads or creeks! They showed a rescue on the news a week or so ago .... a car in Texas that was getting washed away and the people being rescued!
Hail sure can do a lot of damage too. Not too long ago we had a bad storm here in Central Florida with golf ball size hail .... a lot of vehicles with huge dents from those ice balls! Hail can really devastate crops in the field in no time and if it's large hail like Lilypon experienced in Moose Jaw, Sk ... Wow! I've never seen anything like that, and don't want to.
Oh, CJ .... THANK YOU SO MUCH! Yes .... it worked! The rain came all the way Southeast into parts of Florida too! We have had nice rain the past two days! You coulda kept the Thunder and Lightning though. :)
Sorry, it's a package deal. lol
Speaking about people driving through flooded areas...my dumb neighbor decided to do that at 4am. Doug and I were going out for a walk and saw him get right up to the flooding on the North exit, but he didn't, but he DID cross the East exit and the flooded creek a block South of our house. I thought, that must be their kid- I bet the parents don't know he took their truck (they own a construction business and they let their kid drive the trucks sometimes...it was a construction truck). I thought that the next time I saw their kid, I'd have a talk with him about making smarter choices...live to graduate kind of thing. lol But then I was outside and my neighbor (the DAD!!) came up to me and said...you and your husband were out kinda late last night. I thought...whoa!! It wasn't the kid...it was an ADULT being stupid!!
Well, my bishop called up and said that my church- not the local one but the main headquarters- was offering help on a grand scale- calling in loggers and clean-up crews and getting people into new houses, etc. I was stunned- I knew our church helped other communities under distress I but never expected to be a part of that. Well, I told my bishop I didn't think we needed that scale of help (Osawatomie is in a different district- they will also be taken care of but another bishop would worry about them). So I told him that I didn't think we needed help on that kind of grand scale. But my bishop asked me for the mayor's name. Well, I just know our mayor is Bill...can't remember his last name. So I went outside and asked the first person I saw if they knew where the mayor was. They said he was at the post office. Small towns...gotta love 'em. lol
So I went over to the post office. Well, I didn't want to tell him all that the church was offering- I realize there are people who will scam you just as soon as look at you. So I told him my church was offering help (letting him assume I meant some local church) and he started talking about some families who needed help. I told him that my church was offering something more on a larger scale than that. He asked what church and I told him and then he started saying that the city needs this and the city needs that, etc. Well, I left telling him that I wasn't sure if this was what they were thinking of and not sure if they'll still be interested, but told him to call the Bishop's number and I told him that the Bishop couldn't authorize anything- he would just be the spokesman.
So anyways, I came back and told the Bishop that he may need to be wary of the mayor and told him everything that went on and the Bishop said that even on a lesser scale, the church would like to help, but it would probably be something along the lines of just helping those individuals, getting them food and necessities, etc. and helping them repair their house but probably not getting people new houses. So we'll see.
The mayor also says to me...your house is up for sale, right? (wow...EVERYONE here knows that...lol) and I said it was and he asked me some details of it- thought someone might like to look into doing a lease to own contract with us (we've been advertising that we'd do contract for deed). Told me they always paid their rent on time (like he'd know...lol). But then it ended up we didn't have enough bedrooms. lol
Doug and I were thinking with all this flooding, NO one would want to buy a house in Lane. So we were talking about going down on our price. I was just chatting with my neighbor, Jackie, and she said that no, now is definitely NOT the time to lower the price on our house. She said that houses around the area are going to suddenly become in DEMAND. Oh my gosh, I never thought of that. All those people who've lost their homes...they're going to have to find new ones. Either that or replace all their walls (what the people around here are having to do). And renters? They just might be interested in our "rent to own" offer. Hmmm...we may be out in just a couple months. lol Now...if only we we certain on which city to move to. lol
Oh, and I found out I couldn't volunteer in Osawatomie after all- the National Guard won't let anybody in unless they have Osawatomie driver's licenses. They check everyone at the entrances.
CJ .... that happens down here after Hurricane's too ... no one is allowed into neighborhoods that are affected by the storm unless they show proof of their address! But, when we had Hurricane's Charley, Frances and Jeanne hit our area all in a 5 week period ... neighbors were helping neighbors! Our friends son helped his parents and neighbors with clean up on their street then he came over here with his dad's chain saw and between him and his chain saw and my hubby and his chain saw they cleaned up our yard in about 4 or 5 hours! Our next door neighbors had only one tree in their back yard fall onto our fence and took out the top of one of my hickory trees .... so we all cleared that up too. It's nice when neighbors help other neighbors in situations like that.
At least you had the desire and heart to help out folks in a neighboring town .... some people don't care to do even help out in their own neighborhoods. Hope y'all are still drying out and don't have any more rains for a while!
cjolene, I keep thinking about kansas and also that we have gotten over 11 inches of rain this past week and they just announced that the storms are coming in any minute and we can expect to get over 5" of rain an hour and someplaces will be getting up to 15 inches...........my little house is only 100 yards from the creek........it has come up to the house before with no way out..........kinda exciting!!!!!!!!?????????
Exciting????!! Gail ... I really am beginning to think you are a daredevil at heart! That is sooo scary to me! I don't know what we would do down this way if we ever got 15"-18" of rain in a short time! Florida is just at Sea Level in most places I think ... we'd all be underwater! The farther south you go in this state, the lower and narrower the land gets!