h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Those of you in my FB contacts already know this, but I feel a need to put it down in a journal and get it "out".

We live in a lovely, 15 unit building on the banks of the Chicago River. The river which, yesterday afternoon, broke its banks after 6 inches of rain in 24 hours.

When I was coming home, all seemed OK. My train station is three blocks from home, and they had one street, which crosses a bridge, barricaded, which made sense.

When I got to my street, though, all I could say was .

Fire Dept, FEMA and police were barricading the street, but they let me walk. We live at the north end of the block; from the south end, I could tell it was bad. The water was knee deep at the opposite corner. By the time I waded to our courtyard, it was above my waist. I'm 5' 2".

Front entrance foyer was under knee deep water. It's not now, but it's full of yuck from river and sewer. The manhole in the alley was a geyser this morning, spraying above the top of the utility pole next to it.

Gas was cut off a little over 24 hours ago, temperature dropped quite a bit, and it's chilly in here. But we are safe and dry, no injuries or property damage. Less can be said for the tenants in the garden apartments, which took 4 feet of water.

The only truly scary part was wading home, hanging on to fences with both hands, through waist-deep moving river and sewer water. I packed two backpacks with canned cat food, travel size personal care stuff, some clean shirts, socks and undies, and got the cat crates ready, expecting the police to evacuate us on a boat (like they did on the other side of the river from our home).

It stinks in the hallway, and it's really humid, but it could be so much worse. Given what happened in Boston on Monday, I feel like a jerk for complaining. But this sucks.

This afternoon, my OH, the ever-amusing K, picked out a record he said would cheer me up. He picked out Love and Rockets' "Earth Sun Moon" and the track he started with was "Wait For the Flood".

indeed!

I can hardly image what's it like to be flooded. Even though there is a river running through the city I so far lived too high to be bothered wiyh flooding.

Hope that the water soon will return to where it belongs, and that the consequences of flooding will be solved soon.

oh that sounds awful, PC

God, it sounds like a bit of a nightmare!

It's chilly in here! Gas company personnel were here last night, and said they need to replace a piece of equipment (I forget for the moment what it was called, but it sounds like part of the meter or a meter itself) before they can restore service. It's 18°C / 57°F in here - I don't normally keep it quite this cool. Hope my plants will be OK and the kitties stay snuggled in the blankets.

Heat was restored last night, hot water late last night. Just had the most pleasant hot shower to date. After three days, I was about ready to be pressure washed.

We saw the basement last night when we let the gas people in, and got to see our neighbors across the street, dressed in HAZMAT suits and removing what looked to be everything they owned that was located in the basement or on the first floor. Up and down the street, there are so many huge piles of carpet and furniture to be hauled away. If we wind up moving again in the future, we will most certainly be sticking with second floor or higher!

Oh wow. That is pretty insane. I hope things go back to normal soon.

We had hot water on Sunday, back to work Monday. The foyer of the building looks a bit sad- they'd painted everything before we all moved in over the summer, and now the paint is bubbling for the lowest 2-3 feet or so, and the wood trim needs a good cleaning. Plus a lot of ceramic tiles floated away, so we need a bigger mat inside the outer door.

But life is back to normal, if nothing else, and construction of the replacement back porches has at last resumed.

If anyone wants to see a photo, email me. I don't have a Picasa album since I dropped Google, and don't yet have another good one. If you're on Facebook, I can share it with you there.