The 'Ocean State' has literally turned into the ocean!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

As many of you know--I am a resident oof a small, tiny, East Coast State that use to be known to the world as Rhode Island.  I say use to be--because there is a decree that have the State's name changed to Row Island! 

 

Flood is the word of the week for this state right now!  There are floods everywhere--including my basement--(Just above ankle deep right now).  I have a brand new river in my back yard--but I am not as bad as areas like Cranston and West warwick--where entire sections of those towns have been totally evacuated.  What am I saying?  Half of Western Rhode Island have been evacuated or is currently being considered as to whether or not they should be evacuated.  Roughtly %40 of I 95--the main highway of RI is unreachable--or closed down--(And there are only 28 exits on I 95 here--what does that tell u????). 

 

President Obama had declared the entire State of RI in a State of Emergency, so we are going to be under a federal watch at least for the rest of this week.  Which is good--because it is suppose to rain the rest of this week!  But u wanna know what the biggest problem of the whole situation is??  I don't have any bacon available for breakfast--and I can't go out to get any!!  Grrrrr!!!!

 

[z100]

Hey HAH... things were very wet along the shoreline of Eastern CT where I am, fortunately my house and my neighbors were dry, I live on a hill, even this morning water is pouring out of the ground into a storm drain at the bottom of the hill.
I have a few friends in the Stonington/Mystic area and they are just drying out.
Last time we had anything like this was 1982 and before that 1955... do the math... I wonder if there is a pattern???
I know at the time of the flooding the CT Governor sent in the National Guard, the State Police as well as the Coast Guard and asked for the CSP helicopter as well as a Coastie Copter to be available if needed for rescue and surveillance.
Its getting warmer which should be good for drying things out, tonight the CT river is supposed to fall below flood stage.
Keep the faith HAH....

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Good to see that u made it through Z! If I remember correctly--u live in the North Stonington area--don't u? How do u like that detour of having to go through the movie theatre's parking lot--just to get to I-78?? Ihat to go into CT this morning--and got caught in that detour---Unfortunatly i got caught behind an 18 wheller that had to make the turn into the parking lot--and then the other bad turn getting out of the parking lot!!! Fun!! Fun!!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Another thing to mention Z--is that when this stuff starts evaporating in late May--early June--we could be in for a doozy of a couple of wet summer months!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Well--I got my cats back today. They are all looking at me like their 'vacation' of being stuck in a box all week was my fault!! You would think they would appreciate the rescue--u know?

My basement is about 98% dried out now. I just have to wait until the humidity and the smell dry out. FEMA gave an estimation of about $8,000 in total damage to the structure of my house--and since I don't have flood insurance, they will take the brunt of that bill. (Thank God!) Other then severely saturated grounds--my back yard's river is just about gone--There are a lot of trees that have been uprooted, and in some cases even totally moved to another location away from they originally were. If anybody wants some fire wood...well it looks like I got some!!


All things considered though--I know I really lucked out this time. Two very good and long time friends of mine (a married couple) had thier house declared condemned early this morning. The entire one floor home was simply engulfed by a flood that reached all the way up to the roof of the home. What makes it more devastating is that this is a house the family been living in from day one of their marraige, They bought the house about a month before they said thier 'I do-s' They actually manage to pay the 30 years loan off in 14 years, (Married 15 years) thanks to a inheritance they received last year due to her father's death. Now they have to start all over again--by looking for a house to buy--and they have to use a FEMA 'loan' in order to cover for it. They also have two teenagers, (12 and 14) where that was the only home they ever knew!

Before I picked up my cats--I decide to take a tour of some of the other hard hit areas, or at least the parts that I could get to any way. I am tellling you folks--I am never ever going to read the story about Noah's ark in quite the same way. If you took a drive around Rhode Island right now--especially the central and southern parts, you would be thinking we got hit by an earthquake instead of a flood!!! Remember that bridge that I talked about that was destroyed?? Well--the neighborhood that it was in is just as demolished! I am talking about big, huge trees totally uprooted! I pass by a F-150 that was on it side--on a driveway. Houses had slabs of concrete or ground dirt on its roofs and ledges. I got to West Warwick, where the mall is--They got the area all blocked off--and members of The Guards standing gurad. But you could see from the parimeters where the glass got broken into.

I attempted to go to the Westerly, RI/Pawkatuck CT border--but that road is all blocked off--so at least until that bridge is fixed--we cant go into Conneticutt that way--and they can't get into RI neither--w/o going about 10 miles out of the way. I am pretty sure it will be a high priority to get fix too--because that is a high traffic area for the beaches on that side of the state--and the state, actually neither one of the two states will be able to survived without the type of money the beach areas make during the summer. I honestly have not seen this type of devastation in person since 1992, when the 'flood of the century' wrecked havoc on the midwest--and I did flood duty with The Salvation Army in Indiana! Like I said before--we are seeing some signs of normalacy going on--and I sure as heck hope we can keep the normalacy going. Because man--do we need it right now!

[z100]

I live a little further west of North Stonington, but I do know that parking lot your talking about.
Yes May/June we usually get some wicked T-Storms, I wonder if this will add to it? What about the standing water and mosquitos???? get the bug spary ready.

Glad to hear things are getting dried out and I hope you get back to a "normal" life soon!!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Unfortuntely, because of today's 80 degree weather--those mosquitos have already begun thier tans in some locations!

Now asfar as te stroner storms are concern--wth as much standing water we hve that will be getting evaporated over the next couple of months---You can be your rest of the year's salary that we will be geting some ferocious storms throughout the summer. As amater o fact, I just read this article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100407/ts_nm/us_storm_hurricanes_forecast and it is scarey.

[darroll]

Heart,
Glad you and your Mom and your cats are ok.
Cats are known for their cold shoulders whenever they don’t get their way.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Thanks Darroll and Pru. I forgot to mention that perhaps the most devastating part of the devastation was seeing the houses after houses having all of the big furnitures such as beds and couches, and Tv-s, as well as entire kitchens (refridgerators, stoves and such) out on the front lawns for pick ups not by the salvation army or such--but by the sanitation departments! What is amazing is that these houses and items are not getting vandalized--because quite frankly--nobody wants the stuff!

[Ubu]

It's got to be tough for you Heart. Hang in there. I hope it all works out for you.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Ladies and gentlemen of TBD--I am asking you to please put Southern Rhode Island and Connecticut back on your thoughts and prayer list. The weather report tha was given yesterday, (you know the one where it wasn't suppose to rain until Frida---That one) have change--dramatically as of this morning. Right now we currently have a rain shwer going--and we arenow expected to get some severe thunderstorms tonight. So what i the problem with that?? Well mainly 3 of the 4 rivers in the area--including where 2 of the 3 dams busted--(which got the floods going in the first place), have not as of yet receeded.

I don't mind telling you folks---I think we are going to be in trouble again!!!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Ok folks--I am going to stop gripeing---Did u see what happened in Brazil??? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36193361/ns/weather/

Yeah---I think we really lucked out here!!!

[HAVE_A_HEART]

We are under a thunder storm watch right now. Let's just hope it doesn't turn into a thunderstorm warning!! YIKES!!!!!