Chaos back home

This morning I received a blurry picture text from my mom. I initially thought it was some random picture of road construction. No, this was a picture a huge hole in the main street of my hometown near Rochester MN.

I'm still hazy on the details, but it sounds like water levels got so high that the water took out 60' of the bridge. The movement of water over the dam left several houses underwater completely. Thankfully my house is far enough away that it was left undamaged.

This particular bridge is necessary for getting from one part of town to the other, as well as onto the highway. But as fate would have it the lake under the highway is also connected to this dam and the water level has risen to the top of those bridges. Those bridges are enormous, it's mind boggling to imagine the water that high. That entire chunk of the highway has been closed indefinitely. 20 miles south of this area the same highway becomes 4 lanes each direction, closing it off is a huge deal. People commute from Rochester to the Twin Cites on this highway everyday, school buses take it, everyone takes it.

And a neighboring small town, where I went to school K-7th grade, is in even worse shape from the sounds of it. I haven't heard any specific details though.

Chaos, to say the least. Here are a few more pictures of my hometown that my dad emailed-

Side view of the bridge as water takes large chunks of land from alongside the river.

That is our fire department building, usually there are no boats...

Our yard/driveway. Sigh. Looks like my parents are only driving 4-wheel vehicles now...

See that yellow thing by the patch of grass on the left? That's a street sign. See that white thing in front of the brown thing in the middle back? That is a mini van in front of what I think was a two story house.

It's hard for me to picture all this destruction when the weather here in Milwaukee has been so beautiful and sunny. Well, for the most part anyway. I'd really like to see this all myself, but I'm sure it'll all be fixed by Thanksgiving.

It's been a pretty dramatic day, but hey, at least everyone back home is safe and sound :-) oh, and my Italian test went really well too!

Arrivederci,

Tina