Sitting here in the Little House waiting for yet another "1.000 year flood" - as prepared as we CAN be; but- that's never really enough- At the moment it looks like the heaviest core in THIS storm is going to miss us; but there are already flash flood warnings both straight west and south-
And the thing is, we're forecast, very reliably; to have flooding storms pass over repeatedly - until tomorrow morning. This is just #1.
If it does turn out to be a "1000 year" event, it will make the 4th one for us in the past 6 or 7 years; 2 so far had us in officially designated "Federal Disaster Areas". {FEMA, I can tell you from personal experience- is, um, how shall I put this; Not as useful as they might be.)
The huge industrial agriculture farms will not suffer financially- they will get Federal aid somehow. Smaller farmers, and ones with non-standard crops - are almost never insured. Back in Flood Disaster #1; we got financial help from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, which happens to have a main office in Minneapolis. Is flood relief on their list of aims? Nope. They just saw an urgent need; many small farmers about to get wiped out, organic ones in particular; so they organized a fundraising effort, very successfully, and got money to people who needed it.
We bought a machine. FEMA's response? "Well, we know all your harvest machinery was destroyed, but you don't actually live in the flood plain." Um, no, but our machines were there, at the mechanic shop, being readied for harvest. About $10,000 worth of specialized mowers. "Sorry! You just don't fit our guidelines. Good luck."
They actually said "Good luck".
Well. So far; this rain is hitting us gently, falling slow and steady. That would help. We dodged the bullet 2 days ago- when folks 50 mile away got 8". They're going to get this storm, and the next ones today, too.
Good luck, to us all.
I'll end with a more cheerful story, from my childhood. This would have been in the 1950's. My family was moving; across the country; and my parents loved to "see the country". Understand- most of the West had only acquired 2-lane paved US highways in the previous 15 years- it was a new thing to be able to drive in many places.
They decided to see the SW desert. Arizona, I think; heading to California. Back then - no one knew about "highway hypnosis" yet; so the 2 lanes could go absolutely straight in front, and behind, as far as you could see (they put kinks in roads now to prevent it). And out in the middle of this desert- there really was nothing to see- besides the telephone lines next to the road. Fences sometimes. No billboards. Not even any Burma Shaves, which we loved, of course. Not enough traffic on this road to warrant anything.
Speed- about 50 mph; very fast for the time. A long, long, long road; absolutely flat, in every way.
Then- in the distance- a speck. Is it a speck? Took a while for my siblings to agree; it's a speck. It's getting bigger; not very fast. Eventually we can see- it's actually going to be a big billboard; commercial size.
It's white. Can't see anything ON it, and here we were hoping for scantily clad cowgirls advertising casinos... Nope. Wait- there's a speck - in the middle of the billboard...
We had to get to within about 50 feet of the sign in order to be able to read the very small black print.
"Monotonous, ain't it?"
We laughed for miles and miles. Whoever put that sign up - I still love you.
And it says something nice about humans, too.
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Update July 22 - we lucked out. The storm split, and went around us, mostly. We got about an inch, but after the bulk of the storm had moved on, we had flash flood warnings north, west, and south of us- and only about 20 miles away. Some of those folks got 3-6 inches.
So; besides getting more frequent and more violent- is our weather also getting more - whimsical?
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