Right now the rivers are flooding. Not like flood of '93 bad, but still pretty bad. I was only 3 or 4 years old when that flood happened but I have very vivid memories of that summer. My aunt and uncle lived in Washington, MO area and the bridge into this side of the river was closed for awhile so they stayed with us.
This is not that bad, but I am sure all the houses and businesses that have water pouring into them would say it is bad enough.
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| Everything is looking normal at Frontier Park... |
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| Oh, wait. Not so normal. |
See that body of water? Yeah, that would be the Missouri River. In Frontier Park. The river is supposed to be on the other side of the furthest trees. As in, not even visible from the park.
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| Hope you weren't planning on going there anytime soon... |
So, for obvious reasons, Frontier Park, and that stretch of the Katy Trail, is closed for the time being. I would assume it will stay closed until the river is back to the other side of the trees. You know, where it belongs. The crazy thing was that the water still had a current. I was expecting just pools of water, which we saw also on either side of the Katy Trail. But the park and the parking lot was legitimately the river still doing it's riverly thing.
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| River is just chilling behind me |
Okay, so that smile and pose probably is not the best because really, it was rather intense looking at all the flooding. What I did not take pictures of were all the homes along the Katy Trail that are under water. I cannot even imagine the water damage they must be suffering. And most of those homes are along the path that the tornado took last week. St. Charles is being hit hard by Mother Nature right now. As are so many other places in the midwest between the rivers flooding and the tornados and storms.
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| This is a parking lot for the Amistar Casino off the Katy Trail |
I wanted to get some good pictures of the tornado damage as well to show that, but the pictures did not do it justice at all. So many large, full trees just snapped and uprooted. I found roof shingles and house siding along the trail in areas that homes were not in sight. Time and time again I was just gasping at all the damage. I am so thankful I was not home when the storm hit because I would have been freaking out. I hate wind. And most storms in general. I am also incredibly thankful that the tornadoes did not cause as much damage as they could have. However apparently this one tornado touched ground for over 20 miles. That is incredible. And insane.
I have to give props to all the men and women who have been working so hard to restore power to everyone and also those who have worked crazy hard to get roads clear of debris. The fact that the trail was already cleared and ready to go so quickly shocked me. Mad props to the State Park department for that one.
Anyway, I walked my first 6.25 miles for the 100 Missouri Miles. I have now gone 102 miles of my 500 mile goal.
In other words, I am am utterly and completely behind schedule.
Time to get a move on.
