Another view of the proximity of that barge, this time as seen behind the dock walls. Bear in mind that barges are humongous; I'll post a view from up the hill, which shows slightly better perspective. Most of the panels of this wall now contain murals showing scenes from Vicksburg history . The murals are absolutely beautiful and well worth the drive to downtown Vicksburg, if you're ever in the area.
Another view of the dock entrance, with a glimpse of a couple more murals.
Looking uphill from the dock area (Levee St.) to the Old Courthouse Museum (the building with the clock tower).
The flood gauge shows how long it's been since the water has reached this depth:
Maybe it has to do with being married to an engineer or related to someone who died tragically in a flash flood, but I would never, ever step up to a wall holding back flood waters the way this fellow did:
A view from the upper level of a downtown casino parking garage (Horizon Casino), which shows the completely inundated parking/dock area. The barge is so long that it took three frames to photograph the entire length.
Coming up, next:Reviews of Fairest by Gail Carson Levine and Loose Ends by Les Combs.
Just walked in the door, yesterday:
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson and
Why Your Life Sucks and What You Can Do About It by Alan H. Cohen
Question to ask self when shorts that were tight last week suddenly become loose:
Did I lose weight or did the elastic just give out?
Happy Reading!
Eek! That's freaky stuff.
ReplyDeleteAndi,
ReplyDelete'Twas very wet. Fortunately, because Vicksburg has been flooded before, the water was well contained, downtown. I was really kind of impressed. The 1927 flood marked on that wall was massive and I'm sure that's part of the reason commerce moved uphill.
Do not forget the mantra oft repeated at Bellezza's house: elastic is your friend. It is, it is! Because given a choice between reading and running? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy: READ!
ReplyDeleteBleh--what if your shorts from last summer are too tight? Does that mean that the elastic shrunk? ;) I bought some cute shorts for my honeymoon 2 years ago and am workin' my freakin' butt off to get back in them (I can get em on, but it's not pretty!). Now, if I can only control what goes into my mouth...where did I put those girlscout cookies? I generally agree with Bellezza's comment, but I do sit my butt workout bike with my book from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to visit Vicksburg one day--but maybe I'll let it dry out a little.
Your pictures are SCARY because I know it's all heading here...they've opened up the "spillway" down here which hasn't been open in 12 years...that diverts water from the river into lake Pontchartrain...so we'll see if that helps at all. I was in your little state today and I thought about you! We went to Bay St. Louis and Gulfport for my mom's birthday to play at the casinos...her birthday's not til Wednesday, but we figured we'd spend the day in Mississippi. The coast is still so sad over there, though it's nice to see some people rebuilding. You just don't even want to think of the word "flood" when you're driving past all of those pilings that once held houses sitting along the beach!
ReplyDeleteLOL, Bellezza!
ReplyDeleteToo true! I do wish I wasn't straining so hard on the elastic these days, though. Got some work to do. :)
What is that man thinking?! I enjoyed the murals, but if I was there I'd be standing back to look at them.
ReplyDeleteAbout the shorts - I wish I could even ask the question about why they were baggy.
Wow, that's crazy. I want to try to get to Venice when St. Mark's Square is flooded. They put out walk ways for it every time it rains and say it floods pretty often, but I've never seen it. Those would be some cool pictures.
ReplyDeleteTrish,
ReplyDeleteIt means your dryer is too hot and you've shrunk everything. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. :)
We had storms all weekend, so I guess it's not dry enough for you to visit us, yet, but it's gorgeous outside, today -- sunny and noisy with birdsong. The lizards are displaying and it's cooled off a bit. April can be a weird month, but I still think it's one of our best.
Chris,
I'm sure it's terrifying. I hope opening the spillway does the trick. As you probably noted, the MS hasn't been this high (at least, here) since 1973. So, that's some serious flood water.
You went gambling on The Coast? :) I haven't been there since before the hurricane; I'm almost afraid to go down there. Our church still routinely sends teams to work on rebuilding homes, but I think a lot of people just moved away permanently. I know, I hate to think of all those beautiful homes totally gone. That stretch of older homes was just beautiful and the thought that they're all gone makes your stomach sink, doesn't it?
Booklogged,
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly. There was a leak, for crying out loud! Where there's a leak, there can easily be a sudden failure. I guess he was just fascinated by the high water. I actually even stood well back from the murals, although I love looking at them.
LOL! Maybe some of us need to start a new blog and do a spring diet, together! I have a feeling that was just elastic failure because nothing else has suddenly become loose. Darn.
Nikki,
As long as nobody's getting hurt, it's pretty cool to look at flood waters. In our case, we've seen high water down at the dock, before, but since the river crested at a level it hasn't reached since 1973 it was quite a dramatic, visible difference. You should definitely go see the high water in Venice, some time!
The river not too far from where we are flooded a bit last year but the embankment is built up really high so there was no damage to homes or anything.
ReplyDeleteI probably wouldn't actually do it but I'd probably be tempted to look over like that guy did. Curious by nature! ;)
The murals do look lovely. Thanks for sharing these.
At first I was surprised that they would brace the wall that way (I mean, I'm no engineer, but even I know that's not good), but then I remembered that perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore. :D
ReplyDeleteNat,
ReplyDeleteYou can see from the wall gauge that the river doesn't flood very often but it's done so enough times that they're prepared. It's interesting to watch the rise and fall of the water and I was pretty impressed at the way they managed to hold it back with only a minimum of leakage. Still, in spite of curiosity, I wasn't willing to get too close. :)
The murals are so pretty. If you look in my sidebar, you can see that a photo of my favorite mural is my current desktop background image. I'm prone to changing my desktop frequently, but this one is so colorful and detailed that I think I'll leave it up for a good long time!
Kookie,
Actually, I think they did a pretty fantastic job of bracing the wall. I'm no engineer, either, but the amount of leakage was minimal considering the weight of water, in my humble opinion. I probably ought to ask my FIL. He's a hydraulic engineer, so he spent his working years creating structures to channel or hold back water.
Amazing photos!
ReplyDeleteJ.Kaye,
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll take that as a compliment. LOL
I've just moved to Vicksburg from Massachusetts and spent part of this morning down at the murals and the farmer's market. Wonderful! And I love your name. On different forums I belong to I go by the name of "Booklady." Pleased to meet you, bookfool, and I'll add your blog to my favorites.
ReplyDeletePamela,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Vicksburg! It's great to meet you! I'll have to check out your blog. :)
I haven't made it to the farmer's market, yet, but I've been gone a lot for the past 6 or 7 months because of my mother's illness (she passed away in April). I'm hoping to get there, soon. The murals are amazing, aren't they?
Well, if you are going to check out my blog, I guess I'd better write something on it one of these days. ;-) I set it up and then kept saying, later...later, I'll write. Sorry about your mom. I lost mine ten years ago, and my dad this past March.
ReplyDeleteI know I will enjoy all of your book reviews and comments.
Pamela,
ReplyDeleteI figured that out -- I dropped by your blog. LOL Well, some day you'll get to it, right? Let me know when you do!
Thanks. I've lost both my parents, as well. We're about to hit the 18th anniversary of my father's death.
I hope you do enjoy my book reviews! I'm way behind, at the moment, but I'll try to catch up a bit, this week.