It's raining again. Actually, it doesn't feel like we've had any more rain this year than in other years. What we did have a whole lot of snow, and now it's melted and the water really hasn't gone anywhere yet. There have been near-continuous flood warning in the area for the past month.
Our house is less than 1/2 mile from a small creek that feeds into the Rock river, and it's in the flood plane for that creek, but I'm not worried. Several years ago the city started a project to clean up the nearby lake. They drained the lake and did most of the cleanup, but then funding ran out and the lake has not yet been filled. So before any serious flooding reaches our home we'd have to get enough water to completely fill that lake bed. It also helps that floor level is about 4 feet above ground on the main level.
There are two ways all this water does impact me directly, though.
One of the flooded areas comes right next to highway 14, which I take to work every day. For the past 6 weeks the water has come right up to the edge of the road and for the past 3 weeks it's covered about 5 inches of the 2 foot shoulder. This morning it was into the north-bound lane about 8 inches, and it's still rising. I might have an interesting drive home.
The other thing is that even if there's no flooding some of that water has the potential to seep into the basement. I'd been lucky so far, but last August's record rainfalls proved that our basement is vulnerable. This morning it finally started leaking. I'm still not worried-- it's not a large leak and the water flows directly to the drain. What does concern me is that every time water comes in, the leak is worn just a little wider and will be a little worse the next time. But this one is small enough we have some time before it becomes serious.
Update: It stopped raining late this morning, so maybe the water on the road can recede some today.
Update2: It started raining again this afternoon. On the drive home there was lightning everywhere, there were tornado warnings the next county over, and the half the opposite lane was under water.