[AT] And now for something a little different...

[charlie hill]

Steve,   I know that feeling well.  In the big flood we had in 99 the water 
was rising an inch an hour at my mom's place and was already about 4' higher 
than it had ever been before.  I was on my
way to go and get her out.  Her house was already surrounded by water but 
it's atop a hill and she was still high and dry but I had to get someone 
with a boat to go and get her.  I couldn't get in there
with a 2 ton truck.  Anyway, while on the way to get her I suddenly saw why 
the flooding was so bad.  In the late 60's they build a new road to serve a 
local industrial plant that was under construction.
The road crossed the creek that flow around 3 sides of her house but about 4 
miles down stream from her.  To build the road they filled nearly half a 
mile of swamp that makes up the watershed for the creek and left a bridge 
about 60' long as the only way for the water to flow out.  When I crossed 
that bridge there was about 3' of elevation difference in the water level 
between the upstream and down stream sides of the road.  Water was shooting 
through the bridge opening like it was coming out of a  fire hydrant.   If 
I'd had a 40 ton excavator I would have very tempted to rip that bridge out 
right then and there.  As it turns out almost all of the severe flooding in 
eastern NC was the direct result of highways built since the late 50's.   We 
were in a cycle of severe hurricanes in the early and mid 50's that died 
down and it appears we are back in that cycle now.  The water in 99 liked 
just inches of getting in her house.   I pulled a vent register out of her 
floor and measured down to the water in the metal duct and it was 11" from 
the top of the carpet to the water.  That put the water about 1 to 2 inches 
from the house framing.   There were literally millions, perhaps billions, 
of dollars of damage from that flood and most of it would never have 
happened if those bridges and highways had not been built.  Since then we've 
had two more such floods.  Not as bad as 99 but worse than anything prior to 
about 59.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Steve W.
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2012 1:13 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] And now for something a little different...

charlie hill wrote:
> Reminds me of the farmers protest back in the 80's I guess it was.  A few
> dozen, maybe a hundred or more, farmers drove big tractors to Washington 
> DC
> and out onto the capital mall in protest
> of something, trade policy maybe.  They were mostly big articulated
> tractors.  The DC police treated them like an invading army that was
> infected with the plague.  In other words they were scared of them.  The
> police chief was on TV and smugly reported that they had the situation 
> under
> control.  They had surrounded the tractors with city buses.  He really
> seemed to think that would keep them
> contained if they decided to try something.  LOL.
>
> Charlie

There have been a few times this year that NYS is VERY fortunate I don't
still have my old dozer or easy access to a large tractor. There is a
local route that was "completely renewed" two years ago. The problem was
that they didn't do it right and the road now is so bad it knocks cars
out of alignment daily and has damaged more than a few
tires/shocks/springs. If I still had big equipment I'd probably drop an
8 bottom plow and turn the road back to dirt.....

-- 
Steve W.
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