Big updates for 3/18/07

(Full set of today's pictures available on Flickr)

First off, thanks for unlocking my blog, Blogger! Their robots were skimming through newly created blogs and thought mine was one of a spammer. Gasp! They finally figured it out that it's for real and allowed me to start updating again. Which is cool because there is a lot going on today.
First, the Tusky Valley school district is pretty much down until further notice. They've gone ahead and canceled classes for the rest of the week.
The water level on 212 may have gone up a couple of inches since yesterday, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Next, the Lawrence Township services department have been busy all day building an escape road for residence of Wilkshire Hills to use if the 212 bridge to I77 goes underwater. The new road is just up from the Masonic Temple.
As of early this afternoon, trucks filled with stone from other townships were arriving to drop their loads and head back for more.
The Cleveland media has also arrived. Channels 3 and 5 were down here today interviewing folks. About time someone noticed!
Now the big news. The rain. It's pretty much held off all day but it is still heading our way with a vengeance. Once that hits, I have a feeling it won't be too long before access out of our area will be blocked going to I-77. The water is already touching the bottom of the bridge. Even the road people were out today removing the control box for the traffic light at the interchange of the off-on ramp closest to the river. Now it's a four way stop. All over town, there is definitely the feeling that something is going to happen and its going to match the fun of three years ago.
With all the flooding going on around Zoar causing the schools to be closed and the kids having to pay in the end, I have one question that will just not go away. Why in the world are they releasing so much water from the Bolivar dam to feed the rising waters behind the Dover Dam which is causing the roads to flood? We drove up to the Bolivar Dam again today and noticed that there is still a huge volume of water being ejected from the dam just as there has been for the past few days. They are allowing the levels behind Bolivar, which have not been bad at all, to drop and in doing so, sacrifice the major roadways in this part of the county. Doesn't make too much sense to me, unless there is a problem at the Bolivar Dam that they haven't told us....yet. Last time, there was a lot of concern about the Bolivar Dam eroding away, but they kept telling us that there was nothing to fear. Has it gotten worse, I wonder? Only time will tell, but by the looks of the radar, the heavy rain in almost here. We're in for a memorable Easter Weekend I think ;-)