#24: My neighbors look up to me.
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Reason #23 I’m glad I live at the top of a big freaking hill: Take a look at what the base of the hill looked like on Tuesday evening after the heavy rains of the day. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway (or, as I lovingly call it, MLKJrPKWY) was completely flooded from just north of Euclid to its northern tip. Water was running down the huge-assed hill, across the road, and into the river (or at least giant pipes next to the river). Unfortunately, this also flooded the road at the same time. I (among many other commuters) had to drive through the water, which had quite a current to it, just to get to the other side. I probably could have gone around, but not everyone could have. Sitting behind me at the intersection pictured above is a day care center. So most parents had to ford the River King, oxen be damned, just to pick their kids up after work.
Which sort of boggles my mind. There were obvious preparations for this event in place: giant pipes sitting on the far side of MLK allowed the water to pass through a smaller hill/levee/whatever on the other side, presumably leading to the river, or a water recycling plant, or something non-road-like. But they were on the other side of the street. So in order for those pipes to be effective, MLK must first be entirely flooded. I’m no chemist, but that seems like a flawed system to me.
But lucky for yours truly, I live on a mammoth hill, so I don’t really have to deal with that. The streets leading to my house are flooded, my office is somewhat re-flooded (Justin had to be relocated today because his office is drenched), and my coworkers are all complaining about their basements being soaked. But I have none of that. My biggest worry at this point: I think the rain may have washed all of my newly-laid grass seed down the hill, across the road, and into the river. C’est la vie.