High water

[Mom70x7]

Just got back from Wichita - there is some serious water going around. Heard on the radio they had closed part of Hwy 400, between Neodesha and Fredonia.

The new pastor for the Methodist church has been trying to move over here from Belle Plaine this week. Had a trailer full of boxes yesterday that he never unloaded - too much rain. Went back to Belle Plaine this morning to get the rest of his stuff. Haven't heard from him, but it's a terrible time to be moving with all this rain.

And . . . speaking of rubber duckies:

Should have sent out a rubber duckie.

They have some, or will have some in England.

A flotilla of plastic ducks is heading for Britain's beaches, according to an American oceanographer.

For the past 15 years Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking nearly 30,000 plastic bath toys that were released into the Pacific Ocean when a container was washed off a cargo ship.

Here's the link to the rest of the story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1996553.ece

I hope someone takes pictures of all that "trash" - should be quite a sight! 

[kdfrawg]

That, Mom70x7, is a marvelous story.

Thanks!

[Joanna]

Heard on the radio they had closed part of Hwy 400, between Neodesha and Fredonia.

Marty had to work in Independence today, and last I heard he was going to head home, through Cherryvale!  Ugh!  I looked on http://511.ksdot.org/kanroadpublic/Ksys/KRDefault.asp, (you click on "Southeast" under "routes in Kansas" on the left side of the page). It's the Kansas Dept of Transportation map, and it shows 160 closed from Moline to Independence, and 400 closed between Fredonia & Neodesha.  I'll have to keep his supper warm!


PS:  I loved the rubber duckie story too!

[Wilma]

Channel 12 showed a picture of an Elk County country road sent to them by our own Devyn Weakley at the start of their 5:00 news this evening.  Hope they show it again.

[Flintauqua]

You can see the national weather services estimated rainfall at:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/rfcshare/precip_analysis_new.php

It's showing 4 inches over most of Elk County and up to 6 inches just today!!

The week long and month long numbers are just plain scary!!

[Flintauqua]

You can also see the Elk River flow rate and stage (height) at:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07169800

The gage is located on the south side of the Hwy 160 bridge, you can notice it's antenna when you drive across the bridge.

I remember when O&B was still operating in Elk Falls, that they were the unofficial reporter of the height of the river.  They would go down and count how many layers of stone were visible on the north bridge abutment (of the old bridge) and then pass that along to friends, neighbors, and fellow fishermen via phone and CB radio.  Of course their method was a little different than the USGS' because a low number meant high water.  For instance, zero stone meant the water was lapping at the bottom of the bridge.  I've always wanted to try and correlate the "stone" readings with the official gage height.  Someone is Elk Falls probably has, but I never have found that someone.

[Flintauqua]

Going through USGS' historical water flow data, If I'm reading the charts correctly, the only three times the water has been this high at Elk Falls (in the past 39 years) was on 10/03/1986 and 06/22/1977 when it was just higher than is now, and on 07/03/1976 when it maxed out the gage.

[Flintauqua]

Also, Elk City Reservoir is coming up fast, nine feet since 6:00 pm yesterday.  You can track the lake level at:

http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/ELKC.lakepage.html

[kdfrawg]

That reservoir has gone up six feet just today. If it doesn't stop pretty soon, you folks might want to start thinking about making plans for a really big boat.

[Wilma]

Does anyone have Noah's cell phone number?