Sunday, June 15, 2008

Rain, Hail, Floods....Oh My!

Hi everyone! I hope you are OK. I am doing fine...but I sure wish it would stop raining!

As many of you know, we're having what Mom calls "a historic" flood year here in Iowa. My town is on the Mississippi River, but my house is far from the river....so I am dry. In fact, my room is so comfortably, I don't have any problems falling asleep (I sleep with my eye half-open).



But yesterday (Saturday) the thunder and rain woke me from my afternoon nap. A few minutes later I heard these loud crashes and suddenly Dad came running down the stairs and told me and Mom that it was hailing. Hail?! Mom must have seen my face because she quickly told me hail is basically chunks of ice falling from the sky. Oh no! I decided to head back into my cage and bury my head in my hay bowl.

Mom and Dad went to the garage to watch the storm. Here is a movie Mom took of the hail.




WOW! That was some storm! Here are a few more photos from the storm.



The hail even shredded the leaves on Mom's hosta plants.



As you can see it rained REALLY hard. Well it has rained REALLY hard many times in the past few weeks. Yesterday the rain came so fast that some water got into Dad's office and got the carpet all well. I guess Mom and Dad will have to buy new carpet, but they told me there are many people with standing water in their houses.

Mom told me there has been so much rain here in Iowa that lots of rivers are flooded. I didn't know just how bad it was (since I don't go outside much), but Mom told me that thousands of people are flooded out of their homes. I feel bad for them...and I am worried about the rabbits here in Iowa. I sure hope all of my bunny friends are OK.

Mom says the Mississippi River in our town is flooded again and this time it is worse than it was earlier this year. Here are some photos she took today. Here you can see Mom's favorite sculpture. She is really worried about it.


Here you can see the sculpture and what is normally a parking lot and railroad crossing.


Mom sometimes parks by these signs...can you believe it?!!


This is Mississippi Drive. The river now covers parts of the road....giving new meaning to name of the street.


This is an old train depot on the riverfront now known as the Pearl City Station.


The biggest flood on record here in Muscatine happened in 1993. There is a plaque on the wall of the Pearl City Station that shows the high water mark from the 1993 flood.


Mom says the river is now supposed to get within half-a-foot of the record...and that's only if the rain stays away for the next few days.


Some buildings downtown are already taking on water. Here some people are trying to protect buildings.


I sure hope the water goes down soon. Mom says I should be thankful that I have a dry place to stay. I sure am glad about that! But just in case the rain gets worse, I am going to guard my cage.


Stay dry everyone! Bye for now....