Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Water, water, and more water...

Never seen anything like it, supposedly it hasn't been this bad in RI in possibly as far back as 500 years!!! Unfortunately my town was hit just about the hardest, and we already had a disturbingly low unemployment and poverty level (as does most of RI these days).














This is the CVS as the end of my road, thankfully we live at the top of a hill and we didn't have any significant water issues. It's kind of ridiculous, you didn't have to live anywhere near a pond, stream, or river, apparently when you get 30 inches of rainfall in the first 3 months of the year, 13 of which come in less than a two week span, ground water can just flood your basement. It actually pops holes right in the foundation, whether your basement is finished or not. I know SO many people whose basements are ruined by FEET of water who live nowhere near anything remotely like this picture (this is actually about a quarter mile itself from the Pawtuxet River which crested at I believe 22 feet above flood stage).

And the kicker. This is the mall that's about 3 minutes from my house. This is absolutely ridiculous. No one's ever seen anything like it around here. So many businesses lost and people out of work. There are about 15 buildings in the vicinity as well that were flooded out (including our future pediatricians office, yikes!!!!).




Thankfully the waters have receded but the damage was done. It'll take a long time for the area to be the way it was again, there are so many condemned houses in our area due to the sewage that spilled over, the businesses may not all come back, who knows, there are roads STILL closed, bridges out, and so many people who have water damage aren't covered by insurance. FEMA only goes so far (if at all actually).

Thankfully no injuries or deaths reported, so in some ways we can count ourselves lucky.

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