Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mid-West Flooding

I�m sitting here comfortably (high and dry) at home, benched from my sandbagging efforts due to a nasty infection I picked up and thought I�d snag a few pic�s from the internet and add a personal perspective to the published commentary.

Not a lot of detail included because one of my two typing fingers is the one with the infection�.

I�ve linked to the pictures, hopefully that satisfies copyright concerns for those who are sitting high and dry enough to enjoy that privilege:


Illinois Guardsmen trying to prevent disaster:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-3meyer20080617182527,0,7189151.photo

This is the levee the Guardsmen were trying to save. The size of the grain elevator in the picture distorts the true scale. The structure coming from the lower right of the picture is Lock & Dam 20 at Canton, Mo. The levee break is right at the point where the dam meets the IL. shore. To give an idea of scale, the building at the left end of the silos is about the size of a typical ranch house.
The clump of trees and buildings in the lower left is Meyer, IL.
I have been told that some of the fields in the background of the photo were one-time world record corn yield producers.
On a lighter note, and not precisely identified or disclosed in the photo is the location of some of the best fishing for two or three unnamed species of the best eating freshwater fish in the world�.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-18floodgrain20080618125337,0,6851261.photo

How the Mid-West responds, no words necessary:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-18floodhoist20080618113009,0,4150497.photo

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-18floodflag20080618112552,0,1600290.photo

A cross-section of America:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-17floodsandline20080617141451,0,3327326.photo

Black, white, yellow, and brown. I bumped elbows with a guy for about an hour who I thought was extremely un-talkative, turns out he was from France and spoke only broken English. A group of East Indians, a little bitty guy from Singapore and an even smaller gal from China. Sandbagging is hard work, those folks really had to put a lot in to it.

I was making comments about a recent career change of mine that in no way matched my background. A black guy covered with prison tattoos that had been working his butt off broke in to a nearly toothless smile and made the joking comment that we all have �backgrounds�, you just have to make the best of them�. You probably had to be there, but that guy cracked up about twenty people!

People will really love this - a lawyer I know from a town that is probably 40 miles away and at least 100 feet above any possible flooding showed up and jumped right in to some of the hardest and dirtiest of the work and never said a word, he just kept slinging bags and wiping sweat. I know he was there 9 hours the first day and was there when I got there the second day and was still there when I left. I thought of the bashing those guys often take - and believe me, I�ve done my share. They must be human, too�

Note the distinct absence of people standing around whining and wondering where the �government� or Bush is? Note the people helping themselves, and others? The flood plain around here is very sparsely populated, said by many to be down 75% from pre-1993 flood levels. Very few of the people volunteering are directly or significantly impacted by the flood waters.

Of special note are the Amish volunteers. After the 1993 flood these folks showed up with hammers in hand to help rebuild individual residences - on a volunteer basis. I talked to one group whose home was hundreds of miles away. When asked what motivated them to donate their skills and time the response was that this was their way of life - help thy neighbor when he is in need. It appears that they are here even earlier this year. Good folks

Note the presence of state National Guard troops. I cannot put in to words how much these guys have truly added. I know a spot where 200 IANG troops accomplished what 2000 civilians could not have done in the same amount of time.
Also, refer to the first photo linked above. The guardsmen, ILNG in this photo, are routinely sent to areas where the rest of us would not go due to personal safety concerns.

I�ve seen some of the larger news papers taking a few shots at FEMA. I have been involved in sandbagging in two states so far and have yet to hear a local even mention the term FEMA. The subject will come up later, one way or another, when people are done helping themselves and others and have time to deal with secondary issues.

Long story short, a natural disaster is a bitch, but good people can and do pull together to make the best of the situation. I�m proud of all of these folks!

My finger is tired�..

Thanks for that update. Glad you are ok, and hope your finger gets better.

America is a wonderful place......

Thank you! That is exactly the point I was trying to get across - America is a wonderful place and she proves it once again.

Anyone know if the flood did anything to brownells

Good luck out there. Can't even imagine the amount of destruction going on. Hope your finger heals up overnight! Back to work in the morning!

Keep us posted.

Joe,
Thanks for the post and the perspective. Nice to see something a lot more positive around here for a change. I wish you the best of luck. We have been dodging the worst so far in the central part of the state (IA).

Meanwhile, nothing seems to have stopped Brownells' barage of email advertising so I guess they must be safe. I have not heard Montezuma mentioned, though that may not be especially relevant.


With regards to FEMA, a friend that works for the Army Corp on The River sent me this:

FEMA took over our conference room this week; so far I noticed a lot of looking at maps we provide, drinking Coke, making personal phone calls, going to lunch as a group, arriving at 8 leaving at 5 and massive consumption of Twizzlers. The Corps emergency operations room on the other hand is staffed
24/7 with real time feeds, people are bringing the staffers food, and there is no eating in the room itself.

So, if you need FEMA, stock up on Twizzlers, 'cause they will find you.

Brent

Good luck and thank you for the positive report, about time "flyover country" people get recognized for their ethic and stoicism. These are the people I grew up around and chose as friends down here, we help ourselves and if the government finally shows up it is NOT because people were bitching instead of doing.

God Bless all them folks for showing what a REAL America is all about.