Stickybuffalo.com

the last week has trained us not to make optimistic pronouncements prematurely, but it does seem like the worst is over, for our neighborhood at least. the river crested late sunday, two days ahead of schedule and almost two feet lower than predicted. the water line doesn’t seem to have gone much higher than our bottom two tiers of sandbags, which were more than enough to keep it out of our lower level, though a few inches seeped into the garage from below. in short, we dodged the bullet.

the river has been receding fast since yesterday — it’s almost back down to street-level here, though it will be many days or maybe weeks before the rocky shore drive can reopen. the power company shut off gas to the neighborhood on friday, in the midst of evacuations, but miraculously the lights stayed on, along with internet. in order to get the gas turned back on, we need a city inspector to come by and okay the house, but we join a very long list of houses that all have to be checked out individually by a department already stretched thin — we had an appointment to be inspected this morning, but nobody showed. water service, meanwhile, has been uninterrupted, though the city was been mumbling about conservation (the water treatment plant is fine, apparently, but some of the sources of treatable water may not be), so we’re trying to go easy — not having hot water for showering helps.

until the water recedes enough that sandbags can be removed, most of our cleanup work consists of moving stuff back downstairs — it came up in hasty, disorganized fashion, so it’s a big job of organizing and getting rid of crap we should have pitched years ago. happily, though, nothing was damaged. otherwise, the weather is nice and it’s a pleasant interlude before we have to contend with the layer of toxic mud that the river will leave behind all over town. thanks for all your thoughts & prayers, and huge thanks to everybody who helped out!