The Rain

 When I heard the sirens this afternoon, I immediately put on my rain coat, rain boots (with a hole in them), grabbed my umbrella and camera and hit the road. Something draws me to "emergencies". I am not at all an adrenaline junkie- I will have nothing to do with scary movies, haunted houses, roller coasters, or anything that involves scaring myself. I don't see the point in it. But if I hear an ambulance then I have to refrain from turning around and following it...so these sirens downtown were literally calling my name.

Directly in front of the camera is a bridge- a pretty big bridge...and the polizia wouldn't let me close enough to get pictures of the water...The water can come up to 6meters before it begins to overflow into the streets and today it got up to 5.9meters.

 People were preparing with sandbags

 These next couple pictures are of a once creek...People usually park along the far bank, underneath the trees and then climb down the bank to go fishing. I can't wait to go back and get a picture of how low the water normally is right now. 

 The one thing I was amazed at was how fast the water was moving!!

At this bridge- the same one from the first couple of pictures, they had a crane that was pulling out truck loads of debris. In the hour and half I was wandering around they probably filled up 4 of those white trucks. This was the saving grace of the city....there is no doubt in my mind that the streets would have been flooded if this crane did not pull out the branches and logs from the river

The best part was watching all of the people chip in a help fill sandbags for the river. At first, everyone was getting sandbags for themselves, but by the time I had looped back around everyone was filling sandbags and blocking up the bridge and river bank. I was dying to join in and help...but I couldn't figure out the exact instructions...and there were so many people standing around. It was so confusing... next time I need to be a little more courageous and just jump right in!