[Leica] Flooding in Winchester, MA

[Jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway)]

Don:

Thanks for the short story.  If you're familiar with the Boston area, 
all rivers north of the Charles are affected.

The worst are in the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border areas about 
20-30 miles north of me.  A few dams are being watched carefully with 
one in Methuan being the one most worried about.  The Merrimac river is 
the highest that it's been since sometime in the '30s.  Haverhill's 
sewer treatment plant has failed and is "reported" to be dumping five 
million gallons into the river daily.

Our governor, who wants to be the next President, promised last October 
on the occasion of the Taunton dam failing, that he would have all dams 
in Massachusetts quickly inspected.  Only 49% have been. Some of those 
which haven't, were last inspected in 1949!

The media are having a high time of it.  One reporter was, (speaking 
with a straight face) that the Millpond here in Winchester had 
overflowed it's banks and had turned the road on which she was standing 
into a "raging river". BUT, the water behind her was very still.  Then 
she said that the water was "chest deep", while in the background about 
200-300 feet behind her, a town worker in yellow foul weather gear was 
walking about in water only halfway to his knees.

This is one time when I greatly appreciate auto exposure and auto focusing.

Jim, "In foul weather gear, and somewhat foul himself" Hemenway





Don Dory wrote:

> Jim,
> Humans are such funny creatures.  You know that there is water under the
> bridge, you know how tall the bridge is, yet you still drive into the water
> knowing that it is four feet deep.  When I lived in Houston they painted
> depths on the pillars of the bridge abutments much like on the bows of 
> boats
> to tell people how deep the water was; yet someone would always drive into
> five to ten feet of water thinking that it wouldn't stop them.
> 
> I well understand the power of water.  About 1978 there were pockets of
> intense rainfall in Kansas City that caused massive flooding.  On streams
> that I could never remember flooding large cars were tossed like toys until
> a tree stopped them, usually bending them like Grants rails on the march to
> Atlanta.  One creek went over twenty feet above flood stage in about three
> hours.  The house I was living in had eight feet of water in the basement
> and it was well above any creeks or rivers, just 14 inches of water in less
> than 24 hours.
> 
> So, stay on high gound and keep out of the water.
> 
> Don