Subj : Miss.RvrDamBreach-Davenpt To : Nancy Backus From : Barry Martin Date : Fri Apr 24 2020 12:30:00 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 this NB>> year still...? BM> As I said some time last week the Mississippi River was two feet over BM> flood stage; they are putting up some of the temporary barriers, so BM> must be stored locally and I'd assume more on order. The barriers are BM> a big plastic box filled with sand via bulldozer and the like. Also BM> assume the barriers are a one-time use as removing the sand would BM> damage. Presume the sand is filtered and reused. NB> I suppose no way of knowing when the ones now being placed NB> arrived.... I wonder if they'd be stored, sand and all, though, NB> and the sand would just dry out to be ready for the next flood... NB> or maybe there's a way to remove the sand without damaging the NB> boxes.... I'm thinking not, though also don't recall hearing one way or another. Looking on the company's wesite https://www.hesco.com/products/flood-barriers/ and so far nothing about reusing the HESCO barriers, but hover the mouse over the picture of the Jackbox andpops up "lightweight, recyclable and highly flexible flood barrier". From that picture it sort of reminds me of a row of the paper lawnbags except is plastic, so a lot smaller than the HESCO barriers. Ah! Just learned something: the product is actually called "Floodline" but I've never heard it called that. ..They even go back and forth: FLOODLINE is ideal for emergency flood response, offering significant advantages over traditional sandbags, in terms of cost, time and labor requirement for installation. A wall using HESCO earth-filled barrier can be filled by two people and a standard front-end loader in just 20 minutes. The equivalent sized wall of 1,500 sandbags can take 10 people up to 7 hours to fill and build. (FWIW the size is 48" H, 36" W, 15" D.) Ah! There are two styles: one is 'Recoverable'.... Go to details and need to put in contact information so will end the search there. BM> Rock Island (IL) (across the River) is a little more elevated above BM> the River and so a lot less area to protect. They have some some BM> floodgates which are raised during flooding. Other towns (seems mostly BM> downriver from here) have levees for protection. NB> Each locality develops their own ways of dealing with the NB> inevitable flooding... ;) Right. Here in Bettendorf we essentially do nothing. We're barely five miles from Downtown Davenport. Slight bit of elevation and the only area that gets wet is an area about the size of a house lot called Martha's Point (no, no idea who Martha is). They do put up a short flood wall, so without apparently more flooding would occur. 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>>> 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 go NB>> wandering, there wouldn't be as many legal places to go... Probably NB>> better to get the outdoors exposure closer to home, like the back NB>> yard... And maybe they aren't able to do much with the park creation NB>> itself at this point.... BM> Plus for the past week or so the parks are closed. Iowa is one of the BM> few states without the stay-in-home order; seems like we went from the BM> opposite direction and closed everything down so no place to go so may BM> as well stay home! NB> As far as I know our parks weren't ever closed.... but not many NB> are going there... everything else was closed down except for NB> essential business, though, so still not really any place to go, NB> so the stay home order is almost superfluous... Uh-huh! No where to go! Heard on the news this morning Governor Pritzker (Illinois) is planning to sign an order to essentially extend the shutdown until May 30th. Appears this one will allow some businesses to re-open but require social distancing. The news blurb didn't do in to details; maybe none available yet. Nothing mentioned on what Governor Reynolds (Iowa) is going to do; I'd expect something similar. BM> As for Autumn, she hasn't really wanted to go outside when here; the BM> weather hasn't been all that nice -- cold and windy. Good news: she BM> has passed whatever test it is to get into First Grade. :) Needed BM> 100% in the test, she had been missing one point the past several times BM> (so 98%) -- from what we were told more from boredom or "that's enough BM> of that for now". Plus sometimes she likes to screw around to see if BM> we're paying attention, so maybe the same with the test. NB> She reminds me of other kids that are too smart for their own NB> good sometimes.... :) Good that she passed that test, though... NB> :) Yes on the smart-off stuff. LIS she likes to give the wrong answer to see if we're paying attention, or maybe the artist in her kicks in and she sees/interprets the pattern outside of the rules. NB>> we've been dodging most of the storms that go on into the New England NB>> states and cause havoc.... we've been getting a milder form, possibly NB>> the edge of the system as it passes by.... I don't think we've even NB>> had any thunderstorms yet this year, or if we did, they were at night NB>> and I managed to sleep through them... BM> My Mother said she got about a foot of snow. Fast-forward to now (!), BM> here we've supposed to have been getting 'accumulating snow' the past BM> several nights - so far nothing. This morning's forecast is for BM> overnight snow flurries - we'll see! NB> We've only had snow in dribs and drabs, too... hardly NB> accumulating... but my sister, a little south of here was getting NB> it a couple inches at a time... it is, though, colder than it NB> should be this time of year... All that makes the weather interesting: one usually assumes north is colder so that's where the snow would be. Probably a lot of terrain factoring in: funneling in rain or snow in one area and leaving another dry. NB>> And right now there's supposedly a really nasty system with high winds NB>> and all coming through our area, and once again, it doesn't seem to be NB>> all that bad right here where we are.... it may well be worse south or NB>> north of us, more likely south, though, as I think it's part of the NB>> storm system that is spawning the tornadoes and such in the Mid- NB>> Atlantic... We've got the high wind warning until 2AM tonight... BM> We've had some pretty interesting winds and gusts the last week -- BM> 20-30 MPH sustained and ~50 MPH gusts. Supposed to be ~40 MPH gusts BM> mid-afternoon. NB> We keep getting the 20-30 MPH winds here, with gusts above that, NB> but hasn't been as bad as predicted, and certainly hasn't been NB> causing much if any damage... probably the previous winds this NB> year brought down anything that was loose already.... We didn't get as stormy weather as predicted -- maybe 30 MPH instead of the 40. Did pick up more snapped off twigs, etc. Trees still can supply a lot more! 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 couple NB>> of really warm days for April, last few and today... upper 50s and NB>> today upper 60s... but before that it was in the 40s and below, and NB>> coming up will be more cool weather... and actually not all that rainy NB>> for an April, though there's been enough of that, too... ;) Hopefully NB>> you'll get a good day for dealing with that Burning Bush plant... and NB>> hopefully some will have survived... :) BM> Yes -- I'm not planning on trimming out anything unless it looks BM> definitely dead, as in lack of bark. Weather lately hasn't been nice BM> enough to do much outside. NB> Similar here... :) Raining/drizzling this morning. I have the south window somewhat open up here in the Computer Room to get some fresh air; was going to open the window on the north end some: rain hitting the screen! Think I'll leave that one closed for now. Trees and shrubs are budding but seems slower: doesn't seem to be much difference since last weekend. NB> Breaking the message here.... It's only at 179 lines! ¯ ® ¯ Barry_Martin_3@ ® ¯ @Q.COM ® ¯ ® .... If this were a real emergency, you would've been trampled. --- 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) .