The most fertile farmland in America is now underwater:

[Ellendra]

Most of the Midwest is flooded, after a series of downpours, with more rain yet to come.



(If that image posts right) That's the small town just a mile from my grandfather's farm, after a dam broke.



What looks like a river in front of those houses? That was solid ground. There was no river.

[Ellendra]

The town my brother lives in has been evacuated. Several others are under either volluntary or mandatory evacuations because the dams are weakening or are being bypassed by the floodwaters.

My house is on high ground and the pump in the basement keeps running. I don't know how my land is doing, the roads aren't safe enough to go check, but its on high ground, and is close to the source of the stream that runs through it, so its a relatively low flood risk.

My grandfather can't leave his driveway because the end is underwater.

[MKG]

My sympathies, Ellendra - keep dry!!!!

[ina]

Heck. We can only hope for the best...

[DominicJ]

Was anyone else completely unware this was happening?

I'd have expected the finance news to be going mad about this what with the world food shortage and that.

Looks like I'm stepping up my food storage

[The Riff-Raff Element]

This is awful. I may have issues with some of the agricultural practices of the Mid West, but these pale alongside the wholesale destruction of people's livlihoods. What size of area is affected? Is there any hope at all for the havest? No wonder wheat futures are so high.

[Millymollymandy]

I hope you and your family will be OK Ellendra. Those are really scary photos.

[hamster]

Frightening stuff. Hope you and your family are okay.

[Ellendra]

The house I live in is ok so far, the basement has always leaked so there is a permanant system installed for getting water out before it even shows, last night the pump was running nonstop. My city is handing out sandbags.

In true Wisconsin fashion, people have already invented a new sport out of this, Sidewalk Surfing:

http://cmsimg.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs ... 0&Maxh=500

I know the entire southern half of Wisconsin is effected, I'm not too clear about which areas in the other states are effected, but Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio have all been mentioned.

A town that had been moved to high ground years ago due frequent flooding, is flooded for the second year in a row. There's talk of abandoning the town permanantly.

And last night the tornado sirens were going off.

I haven't floated away yet, but there are those who have.

[andyt]

Hi Ellendra,
Thinking of you all at this worrying time. However i can't help but think that your basement pump,is wasting it's time.Where is it pumping this flood water to?
Just a thought.........is this a result of global warming,or climate change?
Hope everything's well that ends well.

[Ellendra]

My house is on higher ground, its pumping the water out to where it can run down the hill.

The midwest has always been subject to floods, this is just a bad year. Global warming and climate change haven't progressed far enough to start effecting the weather yet. (Its still less than .0000000001 degrees.)

[Wombat]

Bummer E!

Hope everything works out OK for you and yours.

Nev

[Ellendra]

It rained again yesterday, just what we needed!

The cultural differences between the Midwest and a certain other region in the US, are starting to be noticed: http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2008/06/i ... trina.html

One official was even shown on the news saying that the speed of the local response may hamper their ability to get disaster aid for the area.

Still don't know how my land is faring, but my house is still dry, and my nephew's daycare reopened Friday.

People are pitching in and helping each other, I love farm country.

[Ellendra]

Update:

The rains have slowed enough that the floodwaters are moving downstream. Levies along the Mississippi are bursting or near bursting, the National Guard is stacking sandbags anywhere they can fit them. An estimated 100 barges are stranded because the locks along the river are all closed. More towns are being evacuated. But, the sun is shining, that's a start.

[MKG]

Sounds a bit better. Hopefully, your people will be quicker than ours (some of those are still in caravans after a year).