This is what I've seen all over the neighborhood. People are ripping rugs and padding from their basements and putting them street side. What a crazy few days it's been here. They are saying RI hasn't seen floods like this in 200 years. Let's hope it's another 200 before we see this again. Here is an aerial view of one of the main malls in the state.
We are supposed to have beautiful weather this weekend. It's much needed for both clean-up and moral.
If you have a moment, swing by my friend Kristin Crane's blog. She featured another artist friend whose studio is under water. Some of you may know Suzanne Tanner. I'm sure she could use some encouraging words.
Wow, we just had a few days of torrential rain fall. Rhode Island has experienced historic flooding with over 16" of rain in the month of March (our yearly rainfall is around 36"). I believe more than 9" fell in the last 2 days. Several of our rivers have crested at double their flood plain. One of our major highways has closed. Power stations and water plants are submerged.
Yesterday morning, as I took E to school, yards and fields looked like lakes. Water came right up to many homes and the rain just kept coming. Today we saw hoses, tubes, and trenches in yards. There were piles of carpet and foam outside doors, as people are cleaning their basements. And we live on the side of the Bay that hasn't been hit the worst.
A friend called yesterday to borrow our wet/dry vac for another friend who was trying to keep up with the flow into her basement. Another friend has 4' (yes, feet) in her basement. I don't think there is a dry basement to be found. Ours has two small areas, by comparison, of seepage. Our neighbors across the street - 2" of water.
It appears that the weather is now breaking and massive clean-up is underway. I'm running off to call some friends to offer help.
