Just had another storm blow through... this one brought pea-sized hail along with heavy thunder and lightning, including a momentary power drop... This storm seemed to be moving very quickly, too, though perhaps not as much as the storm last week. The one on Thursday was crazy. It rained so hard that I couldn't see the driveway out the window, no more than 10 feet away. Lots of trees (big, old grandiose fauna) fell or broke in various places. The rain is good, since we were in a drought last year, but it makes one wonder: what will the weather be like over the next 4 years as things continue to change dramatically?
My alma mater, Luther College, is dealing with flooding this week. Says my roommate, who works in IT there: "the 1941 flood crested at 15.2 feet the 1993 flood was a 14.3 foot crest, and yesterday was a 17.9 ft crest." That's a fairly dramatic increase. Want to see what it looks like? Check out these aerial photographs. They're very impressive. If you don't look closely, you might think it's just a big, wide river... until you realize that it's hitting the emergency flood dikes that are a good 15' or more above the normal water level. As for Luther, I'm told there is damage to the Regents' Center (gymnasium complex) in some areas. Kind of crazy.
