February floods, they tell us, are the very worst. So far all is well, but things could change quickly. Normally we would have at least a 24 hour warning telling us at what height the river will crest. But with the ice jam that's been building up and backing up from downtown 5 miles away, the river could rise very quickly. The road was still passable yesterday afternoon when we took our 2 vehicles out to higher ground (about 2 blocks away). Some vehicles with a higher wheel base were still on the road this morning. But by early afternoon the water had risen to nearly 3 feet in some places. We get around quite easily in our kayaks, and we're expecting the temperature to get up to 37 degrees by Monday. But after that it gets much colder and our kayaking may be over. Our biggest fear is high water that would come into the house----first in our rental cottage 12 houses down river and then in this house which is about 2 feet higher than that. In a summer flood (like the late May flood of 2004 before we moved here) there is enough warning to move everything up to the loft, but this winter flood could come fast. At this point we're still taking it easy. We went down river 8 houses last night for dinner with friends and today John's sister Mary parked on high ground and I towed out a kayak to pick her up and she had lunch with us. And in the meantime we've been able to help out neighbors with their flood issues. Very few have evacuated. We're all river-rats and we'll stay as long as we can. The photo above is a view of our front yard.
This one is the deck along the side of the yard and the one below is our picnic table normally overlooking the river by 10 feet.
