Monday, August 20, 2007

At a loss for words

I had been mentally composing a clever and witty post while driving to work today when I heard about the recent rainfall in my hometown. Normally, I would have heard about it sooner but my parents and my sister's family are all up north vacationing.

I am heartbroken to see the devastation that a tremendous amount of rain can bring. At the beginning of August, southwestern Wisconsin was several inches behind on rainfall. As of yesterday they are 16" over normal. 11" of which fell in just 4 hours.

My parents are lucky. According to my uncle who stopped over to survey the damage, they lost a retaining wall, but it was behind the garage and it appears that the house suffered no damage.

I am including a link to the local newspaper as well as a couple of photos from the area. There are several slideshows on their websites.





The number of major roads that are closed is stunning. Several counties have been declared Disaster Areas so that they can apply for state assistance. 6 people are confirmed dead. This map details it all.

2 comments:

Michele said...

Wow, I am sorry to hear about that. I hope your family is ok...

Mother of Chaos said...

I was watching this on the news. Awful, just plain awful! We tend to shrug off rain, too - but it has an awesome power, especially when it hits us with so much, so fast!!