THREE BIKE OUT TO VIEW FLOOD WATERS

On Wednesday night three of us met at Casey's just as the sky cleared at 5:30.  Wayne & Sandy on DFT and Bob R on his Wing decided we would stay fairly close to home and maybe get a chance to see some of the flooded areas.  We were concerned about coming upon roads that might be closed.

GASSING UP THE DFT

We headed out through Elon and then north to Lansing.  We followed HWY 26 north to New Albin.  On the way we crossed a couple of creeks that seemed high, but so far we hadn't really seen any flooding of roads or fields.  

We turned onto Pool Hill Drive at New Albin and followed it into Eitzen, where we stopped at Gators for some drinks.  Again we saw some bluffs that looked as if the rain had knocked down some debris, but no real damage.

That all changed when we got on 76 and headed south, particularly as we got closer to Dorchester.  We could see that the water had flooded Waterloo Creek.  I saw about a dozen deer standing on what looked like a small island.  We also saw a field of corn that had water standing right to the top of the corn stalks.  I had planned to take A26 over to the Lycurgus road back to town, but as I signaled the left turn, I saw a sign that said "ROAD CLOSED--WATER OVER ROAD".  So we continued on 76.  When we got to the bridge and road that leads back to Hager's campground, we saw emergency vehicles from the DOT and sheriff's office parked on the road.  As we crossed the bridge we could see that the water was just about up to the bridge platform, and the Dougherty home had water up to the first floor.  I think they actually closed the bridge shortly after we crossed.  I later heard people say they saw big hay bales floating down the river and striking the bridge.

We continued on to Gus & Tony's where we recounted what we had seen.  Having been in the insurance business, I know there is nothing short of a tornado that can be more damaging than floods.  We did end up with about 75 miles on the shortened ride.