For those who watch the weather, last night and this morning, we were that funny little pinkish-white dot in the middle of all that green, yellow, red, purple, etc. over the Mississippi Valley. I don't know how much rain we got between 12:50 p.m. yesterday and so far today, because Pop's 7-inch rain gauge was topped out. Whatever it was, it was flash flood stuff.
I'm not building an ark, yet, though, even though I've gathered ma wee beasties over here at the folks' place. The city's drainage system, installed over the past decade or so, appears to have worked very well. The streets flooded temporarily, and there were the rare blocked drains, but overall, the only real damage to Monmouth was from the wind bringing down trees. And power lines... and poles.
(The police officer who sent in the report on the tree in front of my house said they were answering a lot of calls about "smelling gas", and a number of meters had been detached from pipes by falling tree limbs, but otherwise, there had, by 3:00 yesterday, still been no reports in town of serious injury or massive flooding).
Meanwhile, Kirkwood, just a few miles to the west of us, is closed to all but the lawful residents. 20 homes were completely destroyed, over 200 homes were damaged, and they'll be digging out for a very long while. I'm thinking my friend Anna and her husband are going to be very glad they sold their Kirkwood house and moved south two weeks ago....
It's still chaos out here -- In Monmouth, most of the houses and businesses have electricity again, but they're sawing away branches, trees, and other scrap. A couple of lighter buildings and garages have gone belly-up, and folks are still a little nervous.
In Galesburg, things are a little worse than in Monmouth. There's been one storm-caused death confirmed already, and a number of injuries reported at the hospitals. A lot of property is damaged, power is still out for multiple pockets of houses, and it will be a while before the streets are cleared there.
We all had been hit hard economically a couple of years ago when the bulk of Galesburg's major industries left town (following the Maytag cut-and-run), but it looks as though we'll be able to pull through. Kirkwood is a tight-knit community, with lots of relatives in the region, so we're all pulling together to the best of our abilities.
Meanwhile, my neighbor whose truck was crunched is filing a claim against my homeowner's insurance company... We have one angry mother and a couple of stunned men...
And it's raining again (just a sprinkle!).
This corn field doesn't look so bad, if you don't know what you're looking at -- but from another angle, farther up the road...
For further information, see Monmouth's Daily Review Atlas, the Galesburg Register-Mail, and the Burlington Hawk Eye.
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