Subj : Re: Miss.RvrDamBreach-Davenpt To : Barry Martin From : Nancy Backus Date : Thu Mar 26 2020 18:48:18 -=> Quoting Barry Martin to Nancy Backus on 13-Mar-2020 09:40 <=- NB>>>> Let's just hope that they've used this time wisely to refine the NB>>>> materials and figure out solutions to the problems last year.... :) BM>>> Hey: we're working with the government here! Do you really think...??!! NB>>> Sigh... you do have a point there.... ;0 BM>> Unfortunately.... OTOH they should have a lot of reminders to get BM>> things done by downtown residents and business owners. NB>> So maybe by the time the floods actually start, there'll have been NB>> some progress made... ;) BM> In the intermim there have been announcements of more meetings, so the BM> better preparations are probably in progress. One news item was of a BM> meeting where one of the local NWS (National Weather Service) people BM> was speaking about the flood probabilties - quite sure there was BM> discussion on what to do to hold back the waters, just not covered in BM> the news item. So now we'll just hope that the prep will be done in time for when the flooding starts.... ;) BM>> tracks, fight with the railroad to lower, get lowered, flood, BM>> raise.... Plus with the yearly flooding I'm quite sure the Downtown BM>> would slowly be abandoned, or at least the half closest to the River. BM>> (Maybe that's the secret! Do nothing, the problem section goes away.) NB>> More likely the merchants and all would band together to make some NB>> sort of fix... Serve the government right if they were presented NB>> the bill afterwards... ;) BM> It would! Probably get hit back with "you didn't get this properly BM> permitted so here's that bill plus penalities". Nah... at that point they'd need to compromise... ;) But maybe the merchants would get praise for their initiative.... :) BM>>> Another item is creation of a 'destination park' (??) along the BM>>> riverfront. To be six or so blocks long with play and game areas. BM>>> When the River rises the plan is to just let it flood so made to BM>>> withstand water and any damage easily repaired. With what I've heard BM>>> about river flooding this does makes sense: allowing the flooded river BM>>> to spread over land helps alleviate downstream flooding by slowing the BM>>> flow some, plus the extra water spreads out rather than up: 10 cubic BM>>> feet of water covering 10 feet is only 1 foot high but the same 10 cu BM>>> ft confined to 5 feet is 2 feet high. Easier to build a short wall BM>>> than a tall wall, plus less water pressure on the short wall. NB>>> That does seem like a practical and useful plan... how close are NB>>> they to implementing that....? BM>> I think they were going to start with Phase 1 soon, as in sometime BM>> this month or April. Other phases following, I assume partially on BM>> money available, land acquisition (not sure if some of the project is BM>> currently in use as residence/business). Would also make sense to BM>> build a section and test: this material holds up, this one has a BM>> problem; more shade needed for the picnic tables..... NB>> You'll have to make reports on how that progresses... ;) BM> Might be doing on-the-scene if Autumn wants to investigate! That could be a fun trip... :) BM>> We've had high's in the 50's and almost 60ø this first week of March. BM>> Definitely a wind chill factor: couple of days ago the average wind BM>> speed was 20-25 MPH and did have a record gust of 61 MPH. NB>> So we got about an inch of snow, started Friday afternoon/evening... NB>> sat there on Saturday looking pretty... and was mostly gone by Sunday NB>> afternoon, totally by Monday... Monday was almost 60ø.... We did get NB>> some winds, but not as bad as yours... BM> Has been nice this week -- upper 40's/lower 50's. This morning's BM> forecast is for a half to three-quarters of an inch of snow ... BM> Saturday? That's tomorrow and seems too soon but Sunday doesn't sound BM> right either. Guess I'll be surprised! Is supposed to melt and be BM> gone by the end of whichever day. South of here forecasting an inch. Looks like we're likely to only get small bits of snow that don't stick around, if any, for the rest of the season.... the highs keep going close to or in the 60s, followed by highs only into the 40s, but those aren't really snow-keeping temps... ;) NB>>>> Ok.... are you visiting your Mother before that...? BM>>> At this point no. She is super-concerned about the Coronavirus, BM>>> though oddly not to the point of wearing a mask and gloves or use of BM>>> hand sanitizer when going out. A little while ago she had been talking BM>>> about us visiting my Aunt (in Vienna) in May or June; now nothing to do BM>>> with airplanes so that trip is postponed. NB>>> Probably safer that way... I do know some people that are still making NB>>> their accustomed flights here there and everywhere, pretty much, but NB>>> if it's postponeable, it's probably a better idea, especially when you NB>>> are talking somewhat elderly travelers.... Perhaps by May or June, the NB>>> scare will have died down, and be more contained... :) And life will NB>>> go back to somewhat normal.... ;) BM>> Yes, I'm certain things will be back to normal by Summer, though BM>> probably slightly modified to check for fevers and maybe better BM>> cleaning of surfaces. NB>> There's quite a lot of containment edicts being made now... hopefully NB>> it will be effective, and not too counter-productive otherwise... BM> This morning's news also announced the formation of a committee to BM> coordinate the ... well I decided to grab the blurb form the TV BM> station: BM> A press conference is expected to be held in the Quad Cities on BM> Friday, March 13 in regards to the new coronavirus, COVID-19. BM> The conference will be held at 10:30 a.m. by the newly formed QC BM> COVID-19 Coalition. BM> The group includes hospital administration, public health officials, BM> the Quad Cities Chamber and Visit Quad Cities. BM> The group plans to talk about ways to stop the spread in the event BM> it is to hit the Quad Cities area. BM> Not mentioned but I hope Dr. Katz is strongly involved -- local health BM> official who is on top of things, level-headed, and is pretty good at BM> steering people away form paranoia and rash decisions. So has it hit the Quad Cities yet...? It's here, but seems not to be hitting too hard... I did just hear of the daughter of one of my friends getting it, but she's doing fine now, recovering... now my friend is in a two-week quarantine... but so far, we're still well... :) We only go out for groceries, meds, and the occasional take-out (restaurants are closed except for takeout/delivery)... Our church services have been live streamed, with only a skeleton "crew" there, the preacher, service leader, and accompanist pretty much.... it's my turn to play for the service this coming Sunday, so I'll go for that... otherwise, I've been staying home... appointments have been cancelled, to reschedule later when things ease up, can't go out to lunch with friends at the moment... things are weird, but doable.... :) BM> NB>>> So she'll be in some sort of rehabilitation for a few weeks/months NB>>> until she can resume her own care on her own...? BM>> My Mother had called my Aunt earlier this week and found she was going BM>> to be transferred to a Kurhaus (rehabilitation building) by the end of BM>> the week. So basically a type of assisted living site. NB>> A "cure house", I see... ;) BM> That would be the easy word! :) BM>> Was given the telephone number by the staff. [...] BM>> Call my Mother to explain what's going on. She tries later (different BM>> shift?!) but same problem. She calls a couple of neighbours to my BM>> Aunt to see what they can find out and eventually do get a valid BM>> number: the last digit was wrong, though was the last digit of the room BM>> my Aunt was transferred to. I'll try calling later this morning. NB>> Crazy... can see how the mistake could happen, but still.... BM> Right: almost would like to ask them so if you were in my shoes how BM> would you feel? If it weren't calling an overseas hospital, I'd be tempted to call and let them know that they'd been giving out the wrong number... that might have generated an apology.... At this point, though, it's water over the dam, and besides, they may well be overwhelmed by the coronavirus by now themselves.... BM>> In the meantime while my Mother was calling to get the number I was BM>> trying to do Google searchs for a potential lead. My Mother had BM>> obtained the name of the facility but that didn't come up with BM>> anything. (I might try a reverse search now that I have a valid BM>> telephone number to see if I overlooked something.) NB>> They might not want to be too easily found, just for safety concerns... BM> I never did get around to the reverse look up option. ...Right now BM> thinking I'd like to find out how their telephone numbers are BM> structured. There seems to be some 'coding' in the way given: spaces BM> in the print version, grouping in the vocal; LIS they don't use the BM> same convention as we do here U.S. (3-3-4: area code, exchange, line). I've noted similar with the UK numbers... some of them seem to be the same number of numbers as ours, but sometimes spaced differently... others have fewer or more numbers... plus, one has to add the country access code to the front of the number instead of the leading 0... NB>>> Makes sense.... usually I'm with others who are busy taking the NB>>> pictures... and with their digital cameras or phones, so the NB>>> results are just about instantaneous.... BM>> Right, my Mother has had that also; people say they'll print a few BM>> pictures to give to her and they never do. NB>> One picture that was taken at one of our family campings, my sister NB>> sent it to me as a text to my phone... It's still on my phone, a NB>> picture of me and my four sisters that were there that year... BM> The problem is my Mother barely uses her cell phone -- I hope she BM> remembers to charge it every so often! Maybe she'd remember if she had something to look at on it... I keep mine charged since I use it as a backup phone for when I'm out and about... and some family members have a habit of texting me from time to time instead of calling on the landline.... BM>>> segment on a polar bear cub at the Vienna Zoo. Take a picture of BM>>> the screen, transfer to a letter to my Aunt. [...] BM>> And I don't know if my Aunt has seen those pictures: I think the BM>> letter was to arrive about the time she fell, so might be in her BM>> mailbox. NB>> Hopefully she'll at least see it eventually... BM> Eventually! Did you get any updates from her....? ttyl neb .... Computers Make Very Fast, Very Accurate Mistakes... --- EzyBlueWave V3.00 01FB001F * Origin: Tiny's BBS - http://www.tinysbbs.com (454:1/452) .