Subj : Miss.RvrDamBreach-Davenpt To : Nancy Backus From : Barry Martin Date : Tue Apr 14 2020 10:35:00 Hi Nancy! BM> There has been some minor flooding already -- a trail or street right BM> next to the River might have had water on it -- and they are BM> anticipating need-to-use-the-floodwalls some time in the near future. BM> I haven't heard the estimated arrival date nor how much. NB> Do they have floodwalls at hand, or are they all on order for NB> this year still...? As I said some time last week the Mississippi River was two feet over flood stage; they are putting up some of the temporary barriers, so must be stored locally and I'd assume more on order. The barriers are a big plastic box filled with sand via bulldozer and the like. Also assume the barriers are a one-time use as removing the sand would damage. Presume the sand is filtered and reused. Rock Island (IL) (across the River) is a little more elevated above the River and so a lot less area to protect. They have some some floodgates which are raised during flooding. Other towns (seems mostly downriver from here) have levees for protection. 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. NB> NB>>>> You'll have to make reports on how that progresses... ;) BM>>> Might be doing on-the-scene if Autumn wants to investigate! NB>>> That could be a fun trip... :) BM>> It could be! Even if ends up nothing of interest the exploration BM>> portion of the trip could be interesting. ...I haven't heard BM>> anything further -- the exploration might be full of surprises to me! NB>> Have you had a chance to explore it yet....? BM> No. Autumn hasn't wanted to go wandering and if she did not sure we'd BM> take her where the desire to touch/climb/etc. would be extremely BM> tempting with the COVID-19 out there. Plus if it has been designated BM> as a park even though in-progess it would be closed and off-limits BM> (city regulation, so far not state). NB> That's true, with all the restrictions, even if she did want to NB> go wandering, there wouldn't be as many legal places to go... NB> Probably better to get the outdoors exposure closer to home, like NB> the back yard.... And maybe they aren't able to do much with the NB> park creation itself at this point.... Plus for the past week or so the parks are closed. Iowa is one of the few states without the stay-in-home order; seems like we went from the opposite direction and closed everything down so no place to go so may as well stay home! As for Autumn, she hasn't really wanted to go outside when here; the weather hasn't been all that nice -- cold and windy. Good news: she has passed whatever test it is to get into First Grade. :) Needed 100% in the test, she had been missing one point the past several times (so 98%) -- from what we were told more from boredom or "that's enough of that for now". Plus sometimes she likes to screw around to see if we're paying attention, so maybe the same with the test. NB>> We're getting into that, too.... a few days ago, maybe it was as long NB>> ago as Sunday, there were threats of severe thunderstorms and very NB>> heavy rain... that storm appeared to have moved either north or south NB>> of us, as we didn't get anything but rain... and not too heavy at NB>> that.... BM> My Mother said there was quite a storm a few days ago so probably the BM> same one you experienced. I know a bit of a distance between you two BM> but the weather map indicated the path was rather wide even out here. NB> It's been at least another week now... so this is ancient NB> history... But we've been dodging most of the storms that go NB> on into the New England states and cause havoc.... we've been NB> getting a milder form, possibly the edge of the system as it NB> passes by.... I don't think we've even had any thunderstorms yet NB> this year, or if we did, they were at night and I managed to NB> sleep through them... My Mother said she got about a foot of snow. Fast-forward to now (!), here we've supposed to have been getting 'accumulating snow' the past several nights - so far nothing. This morning's forecast is for overnight snow flurries - we'll see! NB> And right now there's supposedly a really nasty system with high NB> winds and all coming through our area, and once again, it doesn't NB> seem to be all that bad right here where we are.... it may well NB> be worse south or north of us, more likely south, though, as I NB> think it's part of the storm system that is spawning the NB> tornadoes and such in the Mid-Atlantic... We've got the high wind NB> warning until 2AM tonight... We've had some pretty interesting winds and gusts the last week -- 20-30 MPH sustained and ~50 MPH gusts. Supposed to be ~40 MPH gusts mid-afternoon. BM> the Burning Bush doesn't look too good: several of the trunk branches BM> have lost bark, so dead. Some were dead when I trimmed in the Fall and BM> didn't get to cutting out, so might not be too many newly-dead, or BM> even any. A slightly later project to clean that out. Last couple of BM> days we're clearing leaves from around the perennials and shrubs. So BM> far will be too cold this morning (30ø) and supposed to rain later. NB> This time of year things are just too changeable... we've had a NB> couple of really warm days for April, last few and today... upper NB> 50s and today upper 60s... but before that it was in the 40s and NB> below, and coming up will be more cool weather... and actually NB> not all that rainy for an April, though there's been enough of NB> that, too... ;) Hopefully you'll get a good day for dealing with NB> that Burning Bush plant... and hopefully some will have NB> survived... :) Yes -- I'm not planning on trimming out anything unless it looks definitely dead, as in lack of bark. Weather lately hasn't been nice enough to do much outside. BM> NB>> Very few if any places are totally unaffected now.... BM> Unfortunately yes. The Iowa Governor extended school closures through BM> April 30th; locally the school boards are trying to keep high school BM> seniors' graduations on schedule ==> won't have the ceremony but at BM> least the diploma. NB> Our schools are closed at least until April 29th, too... kids are NB> doing distance learning and being home-schooled, too... And the NB> colleges are doing things all online, too... I'm half-expecting another extension until mid-May -- at least here in the Midwest; New York/East Coast might be able to start reopening around the first of May just because that area had it earlier than here. The news has a chart of number of instances by county. Scott, Clinton and Muscatine counties (me, north of here, south of here) are the highest -- yeah, we're also the most populous (in this part of Iowa) -- of course we're going to have the most COVID-19 cases! To me would make more sense if also showed percentage. BM> Nothing's been said but I wonder about what's going on with upcoming BM> freshman college classes: the colleges and universities are closed. NB> Maybe the colleges just don't know what to plan for the fall... NB> it's so much a wait-and-see now.... That and the summer sessions! As you indicated, too early to tell. And when in-person classes do begin will cause a mixing of people, not only locally but the U.S. and internationally -- we have three colleges / universities with a significant international student body. I'd guess a cursory medical check for flights but for those travelling by car.... BM> True.... Grocery stores becoming the new 'in' spot to gather and see BM> people! I'm thinking it's national but here the Target (Super Target, BM> with grocery) is limiting to 60 people inside at a time, Home Depot BM> limiting to 100. What's sort of funny is here the Target is much BM> larger than the Home Depot (excluding Garden Center) so the numbers BM> should be reversed. NB> Not sure if the big box stores here are limiting how many inside NB> the store at a time, as I've not been anywhere near them, but so NB> far Wegmans hasn't limited, though they have now posted signs NB> saying that they reserve the right to do so if they feel it NB> necessary.... It's more just encouraging the 6' away from each NB> other and otherwise maintaining distance from anyone... I'm not NB> seeing so much of the stores being a place for gathering, but NB> then it is being actively discouraged... Here also more encouragement to stay in place, only going out when necessary. I've been told Schnuck's grocery store (chain headquartered in St. Louis) is restricting to 60 customers at a time. I haven't heard of restictions at the other grocery stores (including Hy-Vee). Hy-Vee did put directional arrows on the(ir brand new!) floor to sort of direct a flow of traffic to help keep people 6' apart. ...Another thing to add a bit of confusion to my shopping while the store is remodelling! Now I need to go down the Baby Food and Pet Food aisles!! (Um, that's plural: they're two distinct areas!) BM> Back to the hoarders. I'm thinking they've calmed down some also, BM> though Hy-Vee did have quarts of orange juice at 99› (limit two) in the BM> Wednesday ads (print, TV, digital) and they were out Thursday morning. NB> Maybe they weren't able to get all the stock in that they'd NB> ordered.... A strong possibility too. LIS, I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it; maybe in regular times see about getting a raincheck but currently all rainchecks are suspended. Also I'm not going to make a special trip if told "we're expecting a truck tomorrow". BM>> Then off to get gas before my points expired. No coffee-flavoured BM>> M&Ms yet but the lady who is more in charge and originally said she'd BM>> try to order said she and the supplier were still looking. :) NB>> It does make me wonder if they were indeed a test-market item... ;) NB>> But even if they were, they could be back, as a NEW item, introduced NB>> more widely.... ;) BM> Possibly! Or another limited version in conjuction with Starbucks! NB> That would likely only be available at Starbucks... or as a NB> mail-in premium.... :) Hy-Vee now has an in-store Starbucks. NB> ... Senior Campbell's NEW Large Type Alphabet Soup!!! Yea! I can play with my food again!! ¯ ® ¯ Barry_Martin_3@ ® ¯ @Q.COM ® ¯ ® .... Rejected Campbell's Soup: Bean with Bourbon --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .