Thankful to be dry

We watched the rising waters of the Susquehanna River back up into this massive storm drain which leads into our little town. 

The 1st picture was taken this past Friday morning after most of the rain had already stopped pelting. Usually there's barely a trickle in there, but we weren't concerned at this point because it was well below the halfway mark of being full.

However, since we're "down river", this 2nd picture shows how on Saturday, well after the rain had quit falling, we were still watching the river by us rise. 

And by Sunday afternoon, finally, thankfully, the river crested & we could breathe a small sigh of relief. 

(Don't ask me who thought hanging the figure was fun, but it was there... in the way, so it's in my photo >:-/ )

Homes are in danger of flooding here once the water hits the 49' mark. Personally, since we sit a bit higher, we're not in danger of flooding until it hits about 55', just to give a point of reference.

A lot of people who visit us don't understand how the river can possibly flood over the railroad embankment towards our homes. But see that's not how it happens! The picture below shows the view from my front door. The river doesn't flow over the embankment but rather backs up through the above-shown storm drain and then up through the drainage grates by our homes.

During normal weather our rain water runs down our grates into the storm drain and then into the Susquehanna River. But when we have a combination of heavy rains & snow melting up north, it all flows downward towards us & backs everything up.

This last picture shows the view if I walk up onto the railroad embankment & look down to the river. Within those trees are where I usually walk my spastic lab puppy. He'd probably like it down there now --sloshing through the water & mud are his thing. But if he'd take off, it's currently too cold for me to want to go in after him. So yeah, I think we'll just walk the neighborhood until we dry out a bit!

But in the grand scheme of it all... thinking about how scary it can be to worry about my house flooding left me feeling a little....sigh.... what's the word I'm looking for???? .... small, insignificant, but a speck in the realm of world horrors...