Tues, Oct. 30, 2012

As of 5:00 am it is still dark too see much of anything out there so no water line update for you yet.  It is still sprinkling out, but the drops look a bit fluffy here and there, like it might be flakes, the air is crisp and smells of snow. The wind is calm at this point, as we are in a little pocket of calm in this still massive radar cloud cover, they are predicting rain again all day today.

The only sounds you can hear out there in the darkness is the swollen creek, the rain and the power generators up the hill on the other side of the creek and an occasional dog barking off in the distance.  There is total darkness over there.  We were very lucky indeed, at this point in time our electric is still functioning.

Some photos later when we can see.

 

 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Well, it started with a light steady rain here on Satirday at midnight and continued raining all day and night Sunday. In the early hours sometime after midnight Monday (today), the winds started to pick up a bit and the rain became a bit heavier.

All in all though, it wasn’t a downpour or anything like that.  All along the rain has been steady and mostly very light.

Took a few videos and photos from the deck, mostly to document the leaf loss from the storm.  Most of the leaves had fallen on Friday as the wind started to kick up from the advancing storm. What was left will probably be taken away by the winds today.

The problem with all this advanced rain is, of course, the ground is now soaked through, making it much easier for the wind to topple any tree that might be precariously positioned.

Late this morning we took a walk down by the creek to see how the water level was doing. On the way down, we could see the yard was starting to pool water. That was not a real surprise with the continuous rainfall of the last few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The creek is starting to rise and, in some areas around the old train trestle, it is breaking over its normal bank levels.  The creek makes a sharp bend at our yard and it will be a little while before it breaks over our bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of the old dead branches that have been stuck in the tree tops have come loose and are falling to the ground and similar wind fall is also floating in the creek from upstream.  During Floyd, we saw huge trees float down the creek at incredible speeds you could hardly say “wow, look at that big tree” and it would be out of sight.

This is the creek this morning at about 10:00 AM.  We’ll be checking on it again a bit later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few shots of the house from the creek, as you can see we are pretty far away from it. We will try to take some updated photos from the same locations as time passes. Of course that will depend on how high the creek rises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have some hours to go before the storm really is to arrive, but the wind has become pretty steady and strong this last half hour or so.  It is hard to hear others talking to you outside even when they are pretty close.

It is now 1:20 pm,  there has been some lights flickering in the house. The creek is a lot higher now and the wind and rain are picking up. More pics soon.

We went out for our last walk around the area during daylight around 3: 30 -4:00 pm.

Here’s a photo from the deck and a zoom into the creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The creek was much higher and the fallen tree that crossed the creek was now pushed aside by the water. Thankfully. That could have become the base of a dam for all other fallen trees and random debris to latch on too.

 

At the old Rail Road Trestle, the water has risen quite a bit and tripled the width of the creek. I have no idea how deep it was at that point.

Last walk about took place at about 7:00 PM.  It was too dark out there to see anything. Our little head lamps didn’t do much to illuminate the situation.  Nor did the flashes on our phones.
But we could see that our part of the creek was just topping the banks.  As we were standing there we could feel it getting deeper and higher lapping on our boots. See that tree on the far left forming a border? The creek was starting to cover its base.

So far we have been very lucky. It is reported that that are 63,000 people in Delaware without power.

We’ll have to wait until morning now to see how high the creek actually got.