Category: FYI

Update: More rain last night and more expected over the next few days. The creek behind twc central hasn’t advanced over its banks, although downstream, due to other tributaries and some backing up from overfull, constricted areas downstream–as close as 1/4 mile–it’s still pretty hairy.

Still no internet connection @twc central, so updates are going to be sparse. Here’s a pic from yesterday,down by the bridge about 1/4 mile south of us. Do note that the date stamped by the camera is off by one day. The pic was taken on the 24th.

Note the rock and gravel washed up on the other side that’s completely blocking the street.

The tornado that struck (one of dozens in the area, according to reports) about 35-40 miles north of America’s Third World County took our ISP down for most of this area. I’m (in an undisclosed location *heh*) a mini-buncha miles south of twc central in a library parking lot leeching off its public WiFi, now.

No pics of the devastation north of us. Son&Heir drove up there yesterday, unaware of the destruction, since our cable–all of it,TV and internet–had been down since about the time the tornado hit, and we’re not really much of a radio family (for one thing, living in a “radio black hole” has kind of trained us away from listening, and for another, there’s not a lot ofselection around here anyway). Anywho, we got a direct report, but since he was trying NOT to rubberneck (and cause an accident) but just get out of the way quickly, no pics from him, either.

But, here are some pics from about 200′ behind twc central. Note that yesterday’s pic is on the right and this a.m.’s is on the left. What a difference a DAY MAKES, EH?

From around Elk River, here in America’s Third World County:

About 6 miles south-southeast of twc central.

Now, I’ve canoed under that bridge with the river at normal levels, and the underside was ~20′ overhead. Water’s sure stacking up downstream as the water’s fed into the river upstream at a continuous pace of “pretty darned fast”.

BTW, there’s a pretty good drop off from where you can see that lil stand of electric poles and transformers on down to the usual river bed and a pretty good lil stretch of bottom land there. The pic was taken from a side road that MODOT has now listed as closed.

Luckily, our lil “crick” about 300′ back of twc central isn’t really rising nearly as fast or as much as the creek further downstream that it’s feeding (and which itself feeds,way on down, into Elk River), but if things keep going, we might just see some water approach our back door. Hope not. Be a mess to clean up.

Just barely south of where Lovely Daughter lives, in Benton County, AR, this roadside park just east of Highway 71:

You can’t tell from the pic, but the water’s flowing pretty strongly through there.

Here’re some shots from a town about 12 miles south-southwest of twc central. The first features a two-story building on a campground on a slight rise from Elk River. The second is a little later and of the highway from which the roof of the building in the first photo can be looked directly across to:

Damn that global warming. *heh*

My Wonder Woman reported to me that the secretary at her M-W-F school greeted everyone as they arrived this morning with, “Happy Friday!”

Yep. Snow forecast for America’s Third World County–up to a foot by tomorrow afternoon/evening, over ice and around 2″ of sleet as a base.

Bearing that in mind, and recalling the Great Ice Storm of 2007, which took out power for much of the county for most of January that year, around noon today I began rounding up supplies. A propane-fueled camp stove and the appropriately-sized bottles of fuel, oil lamps, etc. If power goes out again, we may once again need to travel out of town–out of county–for my Wonder Woman to complete grad work assignments (just hunting up a hot spot),since we no longer have a backup dialup service, but for other needs, we should be OK. Sure, with temps projected to go as low as -6 Fahrenheit, I’ll need to keep the water running a wee tad to avoid freezing pipes if we love power, but that’d be a small price to pay.

Everything’s pretty well weatherproofed here at twc central. We have ice chests for moving fridge stuff outside for keeping, if power’s out too long. Plenty of propane for the camp stove and as long as we have water, the hot water heater (natural gas) will help warming the core of the house. (Help keep the pipes unfrozen, too, as hot/cold pipes are run very closely together.) Worked well enough during the bitterly cold weather in January 2007 when power was out here at twc central for a couple of weeks.

Of course, there is that client who needs onsite help out in the boonies on Tuesday afternoon. I may have to defer that, knowing just how steep and rough her nearly 1/4 mile drive is. Sadly, the roads to her house are less navigable in icy/snowy road conditions now than in 2007, since they’re now blacktopped. Icy/snowy dirt and gravel roads are often easier to drive in icy/snowy conditions. Oh, well.

Anywho… twc may be offline (or not) intermittently, for “weather days”. We’ll see.

Mini-micro-update: Banner streaming across TV screen has darned near everything in a six-county (four-state) area canceled already, except for the local schools here in America’s Third World County.

Whatever you do, if you visit a fast food joint, do NOT order a Number 2. Seriously. Just think about it.

103.0°F–2 hours after posting that, 104.4°F–at the local high school weather station. “Heat index” of 111 (110, 2 hours later, so less humidity? Yep).

Working inside today.