Nice weather for ducks!

To continue the somewhat unusual weather patterns experienced so far this year, instead of very cold weather & lots of snow things have warmed up just enough so that the snow has now turned to rain, & there has been lots of it!

There was extensive flooding along the Meramec River which we are fairly close to, but luckily far enough away so that the flooding didn't directly affect our house. However, it took over an hour to get to Beth's piano lesson in Valley Park (which is usually a 10-minute journey). Valley Park is the next city north from us & the Meramec River runs right through it. The river crested at 37.83 feet at 7 a.m. on March 22nd, which is the third highest flood crest ever recorded at this location & approximately 20-feet above the level at which flooding begins. Luckily for Valley Park, a new $49 million flood defence levee was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2005 so the downtown area remained dry. However, Hwy 141 which passes through Valley Park was flooded at Interstate 44. The water level was getting so high that MoDOT started making preparations to close the interstate at Hwy 141 since the water had started to encroach upon the road. They managed to keep two lanes open in each direction (which was good since this is the interstate that I use for my commute to work) by placing temporary flood defences on the shoulder & inside lane, but to do this caused gridlock with reports of people being stuck in traffic jams for six hours!