River Watch 2011, precautions

This is the level of the river on Sunday. 

Scroll down to the earlier post to see the original river levels. See how far the water has come past the furthest right tree?

People have been coming from all over to see the river. The traffic on the island has been crazy due to all of the "gawkers."

This is the last photo from Sunday from this spot. You can see where the water was already piling up in the middle of the lot.

I can't show you today's level because they have closed off the parking lot from which I took this photo. They've closed it off because the water is soon to flood the parking lot. 

They are now predicting a river crest of 48 feet. Previously they predicted 45 feet. This would still keep our house in the clear; however, parts of our island will be flooded. It may be that some of our roads are flooded. We're looking at the possibility of being stuck in the house for a few days. 

As of right now, our preference is to be stuck in our house on the island rather than leaving it. We hope we won't have to make this decision. We've had tons of wonderful friends offer their homes, and we may have to take someone up on their offer, but we hope not to. 

I made the run to Target and Whole Foods today to get flashlights, batteries and food. I also got a tiny collar for Porter and a custom tag. This sounds strange, but in the crazy chance that we have to leave the house (Porter has a carrier, which he will be in), but we also wanted him to have a collar. Isn't it weird the things you think of when you're faced with a slight emergency situation? Grace has a collar with her information, so she will be identifiable too. 

We hope that all of these precautions are not needed, but you don't ever want to look back and wish you had done something differently. 

So that's where we are. We're fine. We've made plans, and we're hoping that this flood doesn't impact us or anyone. We can deal with a few flooded roads and some inconvenience. We know people all over the mid-south have experienced terrible tragedies because of storms, and we plan to just hold the fort down on our little island!

That's the muddy truth!