OT - high water

[ronnie gauthier]

We've had quite a bit of rain around here lately. A litte way north of me is a
place called dead river basin. The power co and DNR hav a joint dam there, there
are two more dams downstream. The other night the dead river basin(area behind
dam...very large) pushed one of the four dikes around the dam out of the way
and let loose. Lost about half a dozen bridges and lots of land. A main power
plant is isolated and down, leaving two iron ore mines down. The other dams are
producing at reduced levels due to cooling problems with dirty water. The
power co is asking pepole to reduce usage or face rolling blackouts. A main gas
line is out. The water is pouring over the tops of the other two dams but
"sources" say they should hold. Is it a devastating thing but looking at the
hoist dam it is now one of the largest waterfalls in the US. It is just awesome
to see whole trees going by and over the dam top. Last night a large pontoon
boat(you would not believe all the weird stuff floating) went over. Millions of
gallons of water, thousands of acres of land, hundreds of boats/rafts/docks
piled up...and not one human fatality. Truely wonderous.