Splish splash

Okay, I was wrong, the worst story I heard from a 911 truck yesterday was not about waiting in the rain for someone being pulled from a wreck - it was waiting in the rain for the FD to pull some moron out of his pontoon boat in the raging river that was just shy of flood stage. The paramedic asked him if he was married, he said yes, and the paramedic commented, "Your wife is going to kill you." I think we should save the poor woman the trouble and let the river do it, but it sounded like the FD had a good time fishing him out and I'd hate to take away their fun.

D went puddle jumping and then complained that his "waterproof" boots weren't as waterproof as he thought and his feet were wet. I'm amazed he still believes everything the manufacturer writes on tags, I don't remember the age I grew out of that, but I suspect it was earlier than 22. I re-treated my boots last night in the hopes that I'd continue to stay reasonably dry - but I'm not jumping in any puddles to test it out, I step in enough by virtue of not paying attention.

K was on shift yesterday (and expects to be held over this morning) and spent most of the day riding around pumping out wet basements. The FD has 4 pumps, there are at least 20,000 people in town, so I think you can have some idea how many calls they're fielding for their pumps. The FD also delivered over 5000 sandbags yesterday, and took probably 500 complaints because they were bringing bags and directions to the sand pile rather than placing full bags of sand wherever the homeowners requested. Again, a matter of resources, there were plenty of people driving way too fast and rolling over their cars, do we really want the FD tied up with building little sand bag walls around each house in town?

Many roads are flooded out, a few others have large sinkholes, and the big river in town isn't supposed to crest until tomorrow, so I imagine it will be another long day for the FD. Road problems make responding to emergencies more difficult, and they have actually evacuated one section of town that went from being Island Drive to an honest island. K called last night and asked how the water in our garage was doing, so I gave him the update and mentioned how I was thinking of putting our sand bags (previously owned and already full of sand) in front of the door to keep the water from running in. He went into a detailed discussion of exactly how I should use the bags, a tarp, some duct tape, an old key, the blade from a broken ceiling fan and other MacGuyver items to fully protect the home front. I gave up and told him he'd just have to come home and do it himself. So when they finally got a lull in the evening, he came home and diverted the water in less than 10 minutes. I guess I just needed to give him the idea.