Little Town Monsoon 2010 and Happy Birthday Yaya

It has been raining pretty much non stop since yesterday afternoon (it is 8:30pm as I am typing this) and is supposed to keep raining through the night. They are saying we have gotten around 7-8 inches so far, but by tomorrow will have a total of between 10-12 inches. This is crazy. Many of the main roads are closed. I did what every normal crazy lady with four boys in her van would do, drove around and took pictures. ;) ;) I know it's a lot of pictures, but it really wasn't that much driving around. (actually some of them I took before I picked the boys up). The boys were amazed by all of the water.

This was one the paper took of a car that got stuck.

This is of a house by where we live at around 12:15pm, picture also by the paper).

This is that same house around 4:20pm.

This is the river by Morehouse park at 12:15 pm (taken by the paper). Notice the green drinking fountain.

This is a picture I took around 4:30pm of pretty much the same view. Notice the green drinking fountain.

This is a picture from my friend’s wedding summer of 09’. Notice the decent amount of room between the bridge and the waterfall.

This was that bridge today.

Here is athe railroad track bridge by the power plant that is normally very high above the river.

This is from Lemond road. These poor houses that have the river right in their backyard. They didn’t stand a chance.

This is the parking lot and path behind the Owatonna Chamber building and Culligan.

These are taken on Elm street looking into Maple Creek Park. This path normally continues up into those trees on the hill.

This is what this area and path is supposed to look like…..

But not today…..

Elm Street was closed.

This is on Cedar by the canning company. The water was creeping into the loading areas. You can see the big white doors.

Across from the canning company.

This is the building at Lake Kohlmier. There is normally a big beach area in front of it.

The fishing pier was wrecked and in a completely different spot.

This picture below is of Lake Kohlmier this summer. The lower path and road that everyone is walking on is now covered in water. In the lower right corner you can see part of the Kohlmier Lake Fishing Pier sign that is almost covered in water in the above picture.

Today you couldn’t even drive into the parking lot at Lake Kohlmier. The grass area you see in the below picture is the grass that you see in the above picture to the right of the road that the walkers are on.

Here is the bridge that is by the little island off of the boat landing area of Lake Kohlmier by the Kaplan’s Woods.

The blue thing is one of the those big garbage cans.

That is supposed to be the parking lot under all of that water.

This is Mineral Springs Road by Kwik Trip and Dartt’s Park.

Dartt’s Park

The fence to the baseball field (that they have done so much work on) is collapsed

What used to be a bridge…

Cherry Street was closed.

This is Mineral Springs Park. Normally there is a big parking lot and open area for the Frisbee Golf Course……

However the bridges to get there and the parking lot were under water…..

This is the drinking fountain

Princess Owatonna

There is normally a bridge here to get to the stairs that climb up the hill.

The playground.

There were waterfalls and currents where there normally is no water because it was going to fast.

It is unbelievable. I wonder if I will ever see anything like this again……. (When this has all subsided I’m thinking it might be fun to go try and take pictures from the same angles with no flooding - to be able to look back at).

Can’t even imagine all of the water damage throughout town. We were fortunate to not have any water in our basement, but I know many people that have so far. Some people more damage than others. I can't even imagine the feeling of helplessness…..keeping everyone in my thoughts and prayers. Hope everyone stays safe.

It’s amazing to see people come together to help out the community in situations like this. I keep thinking though, look how devastating this is to our town, but how small it is in comparison to some of the big natural disasters that people have been through in the world the past couple of years….

On a much happier note....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YAYA!

We love you and hope you had a wonderful fabulous day! (hope you stayed dry also!)