Who’ll stop the rain?

What a rainy spring we’re having! At the end of March, the TV weathercaster told us that the St. Louis area was already a full month ahead on rainfall for the year—and it hasn’t stopped. At this time, most river levels in Missouri are at their second-highest—second only to the record flooding we experienced in 1993. Levees are failing because they are so water-logged from standing water. St. Peters was under two tornado warnings two days apart just before we left for Zaque’s graduation in Colorado. Thankfully (for us), the tornado that hit Jefferson City the night before our trip dissipated six miles west of us.

As Ted and I drove through Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa on our way to and from Colorado, we saw standing water everywhere. Kansas has many new wetlands, and that was nothing, compared to Nebraska and Iowa, which can nearly qualify as large lakes! I-29 was under water from Council Bluffs, IA to St. Joseph, MO, so we had to take two-lane roads west of the Missouri River to get home. As we crossed the river at St. Joseph, we received a “tornado emergency” warning on our cell phones because a tornado was sighted west of Kansas City, heading for St. Joseph.

Everyone else was forced to use the secondary roads as well, so traffic was heavy. At times, the rain reduced visibility to less than a quarter-mile.

The day after we got home, we had another severe thunderstorm warning in our area. When it passed, we went out to do some errands, and saw this tree across the road about two miles from our house.

Make it stop! We want to have at least two dry days in a row so we can clean and seal our concrete, but we’re still waiting.