Friday, February 8, 2008

Radio Waves
















Back in the summer of 1981 we had 27 days of rain during the month of June alone...that was the first time I remember significant flooding along Beaver Creek from the Grand Lake spillway. The Beaver sits well below the west bank of the 13,500 acre lake and it the lone exit point for the lake on it's west side. Before the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, in all their bureau-rat-ic wisdom decided to change the spillway and "correct" the flow.....and that 1981 flow was in no way as bad as the 2003 release or the one we are currently having.....the Flood Warning for Mercer County continues until 4PM this afternoon...the correction by ODNR has been a disaster!

Back in 81 I worked as the Program Director/Morning Anchor at WCSM RAdio, having moved back to Celina from Dodge City, Kansas, the previous summer.....the flood was nothing major, but with the Radio Station sitting right on the banks of the creek, the electronic systems and offices were in danger of getting soaked....so we sandbagged, and that kept the water out of the building.

Similar actions are taking place this year as they were in 2003....the station is a vitural island...with only the south roadway open...Meyer Road to the north and Schunk Road to the east are nothing more than a 3 foot deep lake as of last night and this morning. Not sure what the timetable for the flood waters to recede are...but as of now the spillway is full and the lake is 2 feet about the overflow stage...meaning the full force of water over the damn will continue. The Medical Center, and the former Racquet Club are still closed and sandbagged....with the temperature scheduled to drop to 5 degrees by Sunday morning, the ice problem could get ugly.

After my "visit" to my former employer(didn't go there, just close enough to snap the photos)...I went on my daily walk for a mile, and it was another good one...30 degrees with a light, very light, snow shower.

{photos}-2 photos of one me and another of my 650 Yamaha at WCSM in June of 1981, before we started the sandbagging....and 3 photos today, as you can see, the telephone poles in the back are where Schunk Road runs east and west, and the station surrounded....at least 2 miles long and 3 feet deep as of this morning are the flood waters...June 1981 compared to February 2008.

4 comments:

Buck said...

Dang. All y'all gots some water to deal with!! It's probably not as bad as it looks, but OTOH...

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Reminds me of a time back in '72 or '73 when it rained like that around here. I worked for the newspaper then and I walked out on a very old an high bridge that the water was threatening to overflow to get photos! Stupid...they didn't pay me near enough to die for them!

FHB said...

The issue here is flash floods. Everything is cool till the rain comes too much too soon, and next thing you know it's overflowing the roads and causin' all sorts of hell.

BRUNO said...

Ya' lookin' GOOD, though, for an "old-man"!

I'll get myself one of those baggage racks, like they use at airports, and you can push ME around on it, for a more intense work-out...!

Before February Ends...

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