03/18/08

I spent most of the day helping a customer with a flooded walkout. Couldn't stop the water. Helped put things up and out of the way of the water. Installed a floor pump and told them to call their insurance agent. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop it.

Got a call from a customer informing me her dock was 8 inches from floating off its anchor pipes. Tried to get to her but the road was flooded out. Called her back and told her to pray the lake wouldn't raise much further.

Another customer called me and gave me a dock job on the spot. Their dock was last seen heading down the main channel.

I had to cut my boat loose from the dock. It was tilted on its side and full of water. There was 3 feet of water over the dock. At normal pool the dock is roughly 14 inches above the water making the lake level a good 4 feet over normal pool at 5:30 pm! I believe that is the highest I've seen it in 35 years! It was still raining.

At 6:00 pm Tia and I tied another customer's dock to the shoreline. It floated off its anchor pipes and the electricity line I installed kept it from floating away until we got there.

It is raining now. As of this morning all the docks I anchored stayed in place!

Jim reports -
Paper says that some places here in Carbondale got over 9.75" of rain and the 24 hour period wasn't over at press time. Roads closed and flooded all over. We tried to take Brownie to her training yesterday and couldn't get across town as many of the intersections with the train tracks were flooded and the ones that were open were jammed with cars.

Paper says that the spillway sign at LOE was underwater. So the water was at least 4 feet over the top of the spillway. Fire's department rescued a woman on Market Street from a flooded car. Down past Sue's old marina probably pretty close to Mike's Uncle Rich's place.

Still raining steadily. I need to stock the lake in my back yard. Plenty of depth for them now. Supposed to end later today and clear up.

Dock On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors