July 10, 1954
Flooding near Straubing
And more of the flooding
Well, this is the 4th day
in a row that it has been raining without stopping. It has been raining off and on for the last
couple of weeks. Straubing is okay but
everything around it is flooded. 1st
Bn. is having to evacuate people around here and send out patrols. They look like they are moving out on an
alert. In fact they are alerted.
Last night Willie and I went down to the Tuggles to
dinner. ‘Twas most enjoyable.
The night before Bob Walker and I had a party. We finally ended up downtown.
Party time at the Officers Club
The sun has finally come out, and
it is beautiful, but there is still danger.
In fact there was an emergency drop made last night of sandbags. The planes made about 20 passes apiece at the
field. The Donau (this is actually the German spelling for Danube )
is up to 6.2 and 6.4 is the peak.
Saturday night Louie and I went to
a dinner party for Chaplain and Mrs. Reahm at the Platkins. ‘Twas very good. [Harumph! That durn Louie again.]
Wild promotion party
Yesterday we just messed
around. Tonight Willie and I are going
over to Pat’s and Noble’s to see my pictures of England
July 14, 1954
Last night Jim Ashworth made Capt.
so there was a promotion party.
Afterwards we went to the Tuite’s to dinner. So did Lock and Tami. A fine party was had by all.
Another crazy promotion party!
This morning I got waked up again, so I went down to look at
the Donau. It is really high, but I
believe that it has already hit the crest.
More flooding near Straubing
July 19, 1954
Saturday afternoon Willie and I
went downtown shopping. Then we had
dinner at the Wittlesbach (in Berchtesgaden
Yesterday there was a cocktail party for the Martins,
Verboshes, Willie and me. [Good grief - all these parties! And some are for her! This one is the interesting one though - clearly she and Daddy are quite a couple if they are being feted at one of the parties.]
Afterwards a bunch of us went over
to the Randall’s.
Heading over to the Randalls for more, you guessed it, partying!
Today I have started things going
so that I can clear.
It was interesting to read about the flooding around
Straubing. Luckily I have never actually
been in a flood, but there has been flooding in Atlanta and Georgia. Back in 1994, Tropical Storm Alberto moved up
through western Georgia and stalled out.
My recollection is of days and days of rain that just seemed to never
let up. I was living on the west side of
Atlanta then and there was a storm creek that ran along the edge of our
property. During that period of time, I
remember that creek rising perilously close to the edge. I wondered if it might spill over and flood
our yard, although it never did. The
real flooding happened downstream from Atlanta, into Macon and down in to
Albany and Americus. I can remember the
news stories talking about what time flooding would hit certain
communities. That seemed amazing, that
they would know it with that level of certainty.
My best
friend lives in Houston, Texas, where they often get tropical weather. One year they had a tropical storm that
stalled over the city and caused immense flooding. I remember seeing pictures of the interstates
flooded. I worried about her – she didn’t
get flooded, but a friend’s house did. I
recall her telling me that she would peek out her window to see how high the
water was getting and that it came up about halfway into her yard. She went around putting towels against the
doors, an act she said later would have been futile had there been real
flooding at her house. She learned that
what she should have done was move things upstairs.
In 2009,
Atlanta was at the end of a 3 year drought.
The rivers were down. The lakes
were so far down that docks were completely exposed and left on dry land. There were all kinds of water
restrictions. Everything was dying. Then the rains started in mid-September. And it rained and rained and rained. On September 19 the rain became a
deluge. The intersection of I-85 and
I-285 on the north side of town, called Spaghetti Junction, was shut down with
a foot of water. The news stories
started about people who had driven into flooded roadways and been swept away to
their deaths. And it rained and rained. Interstates were flooded and overrun with
water. On the west side of town, the
Chattahoochee River ran over I-20, effectively cutting it off from the rest of
Atlanta. The river covered 285 on the
west side of town as well. Students were
evacuated from an elementary school which eventually was flooded to its roof. Whole neighborhoods were flooded. They called it a 500 year flood event. I had never seen anything quite like it. It seemed amazing that it would be happening
in Atlanta.
We have all
kinds of crazy weather here, but floods aren’t the norm. Certain neighborhoods along certain creeks
will regularly flood, but the kind of flooding we had that September was not
the norm.
I hate flooding although, thankfully, I've never been directly affected. It must be such a helpless feeling to see the water rising around you and yet there is nothing you can really do about it.
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