calliopes_pen

The Ohio River crests at 55.5 feet today (and will go down to 54.2 feet Monday) here in Paducah...and the flood wall has sprung a bit of a leak. However, it’s not as bad as it could have been since they’ve been letting water out elsewhere down by the lake. The wall is reportedly holding up fine, just has a bit of an impressive trickle going on every so often. They’re advising people to please stop going up to the flood wall to take pictures and/or gawk--or pretend to be a little Dutch boy holding back a flood with his finger. Because that really doesn’t help things. Parking your car right next to the wall is also not the best move ever, and people (yes, it’s happened several times--some try to climb over the wall to get footage with camera phones) will be towed and fined the next time it occurs.

Brookport and Metropolis are currently ghost towns, and the only ones left there are cops. If you are insane, and go to loot, you will be given a $200 ticket and told to turn around, because nobody is supposed to be there.

Here in Paducah: Krebs Station Road--on Old Highway 45--has 10 feet of water on it. Old Mayfield Road near there has 6 feet of water.

Because people have asked, Lone Oak is fine for right now. If that started to go underwater, then it would mean that we were now an island, and Paducah would be gone. This is supposed to be high ground. Of course, with streets flooding everywhere else that have never flooded before, who really knows?

All the rain, from when it started to when it ended, was a grand total of 20 inches. I was told previously that it was 17.01 inches, but either way it’s a lot. The flooding isn’t expected to get any better until early next month.

Yesterday, they were supposed to blow another chunk of levee at the same place as before, around 8 or 9 PM. It didn’t happen. Now, they say it will be in just a few minutes, unless they happen to change their minds again.