We’re In For It Now!!

GRIPE NO. 1:  Ole and I had some hopes that we were going to escape the flood this year with little damage.  But those hopes have certainly been drowned out by what we witnessed last night.  Things have been going quite well so far regarding “The Melt” – it’s been slow with warm temperatures during the day and freezing at night.  We didn’t get a lot of snow in this last blast – so we were pretty much keeping our chin up and thinking positive. 

BUT – last night when we took Daisy for her nightly run we decided to drive down County Highway 10 to the east of us and check out the deep drainage ditch.  You remember the one I wrote about in previous entries – the one deep enough to lose a truck in and that has dual culverts big enough to drive a small car through.  Yup – that one.  Back in 2009 “They” authorized the cleaning out of that ditch all the way from Downer to Stony Creek (6 miles) which empties into the main stem of the Buffalo.  That’s the year the water rose to just about its crest level in a matter of 5 hours and also the year that the water was flowing into the main stem so fast that the river actually flowed backwards.

Well, guess what – “They” are doing it AGAIN!!

So probably by Monday or so – we’ll not have to joke anymore about putting on our water wings and getting a motorized surfboard.  It will be for real once again.  I just don’t understand why they can’t just let things percolate through the system instead of trying to get all that water into the main stream as fast as possible.  There doesn’t seem to be any concern about what happens to the people living downstream from all this mess.  I could spit tacks right now – Everyone who lives along the river pays taxes just like the folks that live along this county ditch.  Why should they be granted more privileges?  If “They” would just let things be and follow Mother Nature’s course maybe none of us would be damaged so badly.  Is that really too much to ask? 

Yet we’ve been dealing with “Them” since 2006 and still have nothing to show for it.  We can’t even get OUR ditches cleaned out.  The water coming off the field from the north backs up in the county ditch alongside our property, flows over our driveway and washes it out every year.  But do “They” clean our ditch out?  Not on your life.  (Getting upset here – really upset – good thing it’s Saturday and I can’t get “Them” on the phone because their office is closed!!!) 

Oh, well, I can’t do anything about it and all it does is raise my blood pressure off the scale.  But just so you know, that’s my NO. 1 GRIPE.

GRIPE NO. 2:  The Weather Bureau

I listened to the televised broadcast yesterday regarding the latest flood forecast.  It was a half hour of numbers and statistics and anticipated predictions of what the Red River was expected to do.  At the end of the broadcast I really didn’t know anymore than before the broadcast began.  And NOWHERE in that broadcast was the Buffalo River mentioned.  Every tributary on the North Dakota side of the river was mentioned with an estimated crest level in a percentage format but that was it.  I searched through pages and pages of NOAA’s website to try to find an updated forecast for the Buffalo to no avail.  I tuned in to all the TV stations and found nothing, same with the radio stations and the Inforum.  FINALLY this morning (Saturday) there was a very short paragraph at the very end of the headline article on the front page of The Forum mentioning that the Buffalo at Sabin has a 50% chance of topping 17.9 feet.  Now just exactly what DOES that mean.  Is it going to crest at 18 feet? 19 feet? or break all records at 20 feet?  So here we sit on the top of the fence and have not a clue as to which way we should fall.  The guys at the weather bureau keeping telling the public that they have so much more equipment now than they did back during the flood of ’97, and the fact that it’s so much more sophisticated and can forecast so much more accurately.  THEN PROVE IT – or are you just covering your buns and don’t want to make a prediction that will actually tell us something.  You got your neck in a noose back in 1997 due to inaccurate predictions so I guess you don’t want to go there again.  But what you’re doing now tells us NOTHING.  At least not in my book.

Okay – as long as I’m on a roll here’s more – - -

GRIPE NO. 3:  Old Highway 52 between Moorhead and Sabin

What happened to my tax dollars?  Traversing that stretch of road is like riding a bucking bronco and trying to hang on.  A number of years ago the road was resurfaced and widened.  All good things.  But the inept construction crew that did it decided AFTER THE FACT to replace all the culverts that drain water (there’s that word again) from the east side to the west side.  So they dug up the newly resurfaced highway in several different spots, replaced the old existing culverts with new concrete ones, replaced the dirt and patched the highway.  By the fall following the culvert replacement those areas had sunk so that you would hit a little dip when crossing that area.  Each year it gets worse and now it’s to the point that if you hit those dips going anything over 30 mph everything in your vehicle flies into mid air.  If you don’t have your seatbelt on you could actually hit the roof of your car.  Someday, someone is going to lose control of their vehicle because of those dips, have an accident and let’s hope that no one gets killed.  Unfortunately, sometimes that’s what it takes to get something like that repaired properly.  Remember the incident in south Fargo a few years ago, on south University Drive where the young girl hit a large pot hole, lost control of her vehicle and was killed?  Just food for thought – that’s all.

Anyway – just a couple more pictures and then I’ll leave you all alone.  Hopefully I’ll be in a better frame of mind next time I write. 

Here’s a shot of the railroad bridge just on the downstream edge of our property.  This is a great bottleneck that all the water and ice has to flow through.  This looks like a good start of an ice jam, doesn’t it?  Maybe “They” should get their heavy equipment over here and do something about this, don’t you think?

On a more positive note – this is what we like to see – ice hanging in the trees indicating that the water level has dropped at least a few inches.  Just getting ready for the onslaught of more to come out of the County 10 ditch ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Signing off now from Crabby Lena