The rain comes and goes, but when it comes, it comes a lot! Yesterday at about 2pm our weather alert radio said another storm was coming our way. It would arrive about 3:15 in our area. We had planned on going over to work with our of our team that's learning to digitize about 4pm so we left early to avoid being caught in the storm while driving. It didn't work though and we drove through a really bad one. I think it rained 6 inches in about 2 hours. Fortunately we got through the rain without being caught in any flash floods but the storm took out power to about 240,000 people in the NorthWest suburbs including our friends home. Holly taught her digitizing lesson by candlelight. (I know what you're thinking and the answer is "laptops"!)
The storms subsided and we got back home a little before 10pm. The campground ended up not getting much rain or wind at all so we'd have been better off staying home except that Holly did want to work with her on digitizing.
Today's forecast is for... RAIN! It hasn't started yet but probably will be here by 3pm. The ground is just plain soaked and the rivers are swollen from 3 to 6 feet above flood stage. I think we've had almost 30 inches of rain in the last 24 days. The normal total rainfall for this area is 41 inches per YEAR. Normally in August the area is parched and all the grass is yellow and dying. Now however we would have a bumper crop if we had just thought to plant rice instead of grass! The really funny part is the signs the towns put up saying "Outside Water Use Is Prohibited" to keep residents from watering lawns and wasting a precious resource are still up!
This photo is from a nearby campground that sits on the banks of the Chain Of Lakes area. The photo was taken this morning. Most of the campers are now just a few inches from having water inside and the rivers haven't crested yet.
Holly and I are on high ground with our camper and shouldn't have any problem with rising water levels where we are. Not so though for others and we sure feel awful about their situations.