.
“The scene was rockin’ all were digging the sound …”
.
This classic Halloween song always reminds me of my late great friend, Ron D. The full lyrics and backstory are found Here.
.
-Zenwind.
.
31 October 2011
Still Knee-Deep
.
Sunday 30 October: The floodwater level increased only a little during the night, so perhaps it won’t go higher. But we are still knee deep in the shit when we descent to the first floor or outdoors. I haven’t visited the internet since Friday the 28th, so I’m behind on the news. (See the post below for my first writing since we were flooded.) We have had continuing help from Tuk’s cousin, who is staying here for a bit to help us.
.
Clean tap water is still not working right to the upstairs bathrooms, and this is due to the water authority being forced to cut their pressure and volume. But the tap in the flooded 1st floor still works, and we have been carrying bucket upstairs to bathe with.
.
Finally, at dusk today, we rigged a hose from the functioning downstairs tap and going up to the 2nd floor. It still doesn’t quite reach the shower/toilet area, but it is close enough to haul there in buckets filled by the hose. Thus, more easily taken showers.
.
The crescent moon is slipping down to the horizon, and my back is killing me, so I’ll stop writing for the night.
.
Monday 31 October, Halloween: It is 14:00 hours and I’m too tired to move. Today I hauled all my books up to the 3rd floor. I’ve only been in Thailand for five and a half years, but I’ve accumulated quite a little library.
.
We finally got our WiFi hooked up to get online. Before the flood hit us, I was reading news a lot. Now, I think I’ve completed withdrawal, and all news seems like old news. There is still too much to do here in the aftermath of the flood, and the water level is unchanged – still knee deep.
.
At 17:00 the water pressure and volume will be high, so we will do the ritual of wading downstairs to turn on the water for the hose; then we fill the big shower barrel. Now I will do something I never used to do: take an afternoon nap.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Sunday 30 October: The floodwater level increased only a little during the night, so perhaps it won’t go higher. But we are still knee deep in the shit when we descent to the first floor or outdoors. I haven’t visited the internet since Friday the 28th, so I’m behind on the news. (See the post below for my first writing since we were flooded.) We have had continuing help from Tuk’s cousin, who is staying here for a bit to help us.
.
Clean tap water is still not working right to the upstairs bathrooms, and this is due to the water authority being forced to cut their pressure and volume. But the tap in the flooded 1st floor still works, and we have been carrying bucket upstairs to bathe with.
.
Finally, at dusk today, we rigged a hose from the functioning downstairs tap and going up to the 2nd floor. It still doesn’t quite reach the shower/toilet area, but it is close enough to haul there in buckets filled by the hose. Thus, more easily taken showers.
.
The crescent moon is slipping down to the horizon, and my back is killing me, so I’ll stop writing for the night.
.
Monday 31 October, Halloween: It is 14:00 hours and I’m too tired to move. Today I hauled all my books up to the 3rd floor. I’ve only been in Thailand for five and a half years, but I’ve accumulated quite a little library.
.
We finally got our WiFi hooked up to get online. Before the flood hit us, I was reading news a lot. Now, I think I’ve completed withdrawal, and all news seems like old news. There is still too much to do here in the aftermath of the flood, and the water level is unchanged – still knee deep.
.
At 17:00 the water pressure and volume will be high, so we will do the ritual of wading downstairs to turn on the water for the hose; then we fill the big shower barrel. Now I will do something I never used to do: take an afternoon nap.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Knee-Deep in the Shit
.
Saturday 29 October: Last night the floodwater was ankle-deep in our first floor (i.e., ground floor) living quarters, but we still slept in our bed there anyway, too exhausted to move anything more. All of that brutal sandbag work was in vain, except that it stopped some of the more scary critters from coming in the house.
.
We woke up to floodwater a bit higher and the promise of more on the weekend. All levees of ours failed – there is just too much water. It is incredible. We waded through the wreckage trying to take it all in. The first floor is up to the knee now in filthy water, and even higher out in the courtyard, and we cannot bathe properly. Considering the sometimes primitive sewage systems here, one doesn’t like to think too vividly about how filthy it is. This experience gives the old expression about “being knee-deep in the shit” a very personal meaning.
.
Morning priorities:
1. Get cleaner tap water running to the upstairs toilet area which has a toilet and a bathing room (a 2nd floor open area that we will have to share with parents-in-law next door since both their downstairs toilet out back and ours in our quarters are swamped).
.
2. Knock a hole in the floor of the 2nd floor room above us in order to connect us with two rooms directly above. The old stairway from 1st to 2nd had been sealed off for decades above a little loft that Tuk uses for storage. The parents live in a similar loft in their half of the building with a hallway running beneath to their back toilet area, but they have stairs leading directly to 2nd floor. To get to our two upstairs rooms, we have had to go to their side for the stairway. If a hole could be made, our three rooms would be linked. Not only could we then move stuff higher, but it would be a wonderful area to live: storage space plus direct access to my 3rd floor window leading out to my climb to the roof.
.
3. Move things up when we can and however we can before water reaches them.
.
Tuk’s cousin, a young Thai woman, came to help us, as did a friend of Tuk’s and her strong son. I don’t know what we would have done without them. We did some heavy work, especially connecting the 1st floor with the 2nd and 3rd by knocking out the floor separating the stairs. Once that was done, we hauled up huge loads up steep narrow stairs, e.g., the refrigerator, the bed, and the treadmill. We did all this work in bare feet – it is Thai custom to take off shoes before entering a house, and with some of the unspeakably dirty water in the tropics I can understand why.
.
These days upon days of heavy sandbagging and moving big stuff have left me depleted and in pain at the end of each day. My knees and hips hurt, as well as my back. My feet are taking a beating from being in dirty water so much. The main reason people are needing medical care during this flood emergency is foot problems. At each rest period, and especially at night, I scrub my feet with an old tooth brush and antibiotic soap; then I dry them.
.
Possible upsides for us from this flood:
(Caveat: We are luckier than most to have less than a meter of water and dry rooms upstairs; many Thais have lost everything.)
For us, this might be a great opportunity to lose weight and gain muscle, since there is not much to eat and we are working our tails off. The other thing is that it forced the opening of the stairway upstairs; I feel like it heralds a new life, since the 1st floor was shut in and always felt like a basement. As I type this, I have a window view of the Southwest and watch the waxing crescent moon make her passage. And my 3rd floor window to the outside and the roof is right there at hand.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Saturday 29 October: Last night the floodwater was ankle-deep in our first floor (i.e., ground floor) living quarters, but we still slept in our bed there anyway, too exhausted to move anything more. All of that brutal sandbag work was in vain, except that it stopped some of the more scary critters from coming in the house.
.
We woke up to floodwater a bit higher and the promise of more on the weekend. All levees of ours failed – there is just too much water. It is incredible. We waded through the wreckage trying to take it all in. The first floor is up to the knee now in filthy water, and even higher out in the courtyard, and we cannot bathe properly. Considering the sometimes primitive sewage systems here, one doesn’t like to think too vividly about how filthy it is. This experience gives the old expression about “being knee-deep in the shit” a very personal meaning.
.
Morning priorities:
1. Get cleaner tap water running to the upstairs toilet area which has a toilet and a bathing room (a 2nd floor open area that we will have to share with parents-in-law next door since both their downstairs toilet out back and ours in our quarters are swamped).
.
2. Knock a hole in the floor of the 2nd floor room above us in order to connect us with two rooms directly above. The old stairway from 1st to 2nd had been sealed off for decades above a little loft that Tuk uses for storage. The parents live in a similar loft in their half of the building with a hallway running beneath to their back toilet area, but they have stairs leading directly to 2nd floor. To get to our two upstairs rooms, we have had to go to their side for the stairway. If a hole could be made, our three rooms would be linked. Not only could we then move stuff higher, but it would be a wonderful area to live: storage space plus direct access to my 3rd floor window leading out to my climb to the roof.
.
3. Move things up when we can and however we can before water reaches them.
.
Tuk’s cousin, a young Thai woman, came to help us, as did a friend of Tuk’s and her strong son. I don’t know what we would have done without them. We did some heavy work, especially connecting the 1st floor with the 2nd and 3rd by knocking out the floor separating the stairs. Once that was done, we hauled up huge loads up steep narrow stairs, e.g., the refrigerator, the bed, and the treadmill. We did all this work in bare feet – it is Thai custom to take off shoes before entering a house, and with some of the unspeakably dirty water in the tropics I can understand why.
.
These days upon days of heavy sandbagging and moving big stuff have left me depleted and in pain at the end of each day. My knees and hips hurt, as well as my back. My feet are taking a beating from being in dirty water so much. The main reason people are needing medical care during this flood emergency is foot problems. At each rest period, and especially at night, I scrub my feet with an old tooth brush and antibiotic soap; then I dry them.
.
Possible upsides for us from this flood:
(Caveat: We are luckier than most to have less than a meter of water and dry rooms upstairs; many Thais have lost everything.)
For us, this might be a great opportunity to lose weight and gain muscle, since there is not much to eat and we are working our tails off. The other thing is that it forced the opening of the stairway upstairs; I feel like it heralds a new life, since the 1st floor was shut in and always felt like a basement. As I type this, I have a window view of the Southwest and watch the waxing crescent moon make her passage. And my 3rd floor window to the outside and the roof is right there at hand.
.
-Zenwind.
.
28 October 2011
Ankle-Deep in Floodwater
.
28 October: Actually, by the time I post this, it is over ankle-deep in floodwater. And the water just keeps on coming.
.
Dawn: Water finally seeped in to our drainage ditch out back, my worst fear because it is the most vile water. Tuk woke me up at midnight to tell me water was appearing. (I am super groggy at night because I am now taking a bigger dose of FMS sleeper meds, my “zonkers,” since this backbreaking sandbag routine started.) I staggered out, and to my horror, saw that while I had slept, Tuk’s mother had decided to move sandbags that I had in reserve to plug totally useless spots. The two of them dragged/ carried/ muscled my reserve bags to the other side of the compound. I was so sedated I had to lean against the wall for support. I threw a few sandbags on the spot I had planned to reinforce at the head of the ditch, then I had to go back to bed and zonk out.
.
Midmorning: This morning I went out at 07:00 and carried the misplaced sandbags back to more useful spots, dripping with sweat before 08:00 – and the sun was not even high yet (and my family in the States said they have already had snow!).
.
Went up to the roof with field glasses to survey the scene. Water coming toward us from the East (from river) and from South and West, turning the streets into rivers. It is a slow inundation, rather than a raging torrent. But it is on the steady rise.
.
Noon: Water invading. One of Tuk’s girlfriends just brought me an entire case of Chang Classic beer. Much appreciated, as doctors never give adequate pain meds to people in pain. Meanwhile, I have been trying to write this, trying to read the incoming news items, and trying to deal with the latest catastrophe. Tuk again found some sandbags and had them delivered by workers she hired from her workplace. These guys are sandbagging experts, and I learned a lot watching them pack those babies in. As I mentioned before, in Vietnam we manhandled many a sandbag, but we stacked them as protection from bullets and incoming explosive rounds – a very different art from stopping water.
.
Mid-afternoon: News reports have said that the flood is bringing out snakes, centipedes, crocodiles, and other critters. Indeed, this afternoon Mother-in-law and I where reinforcing a sandbag levee in the back of the house when I saw a monster centipede a foot long on the lower wall not a foot away from our heads as we were bending over our work. She grabbed a broom and swept it away while saying something in Thai, and the tone said it was not a very welcoming message. The centipede swam away surprisingly fast. That big guy was a creature out of nightmares.
.
Small-time, lower class, country folk entrepreneur families I’ve never seen before are visiting street corners, selling eggs, etc., from backs of small pickup trucks or just from baskets on the sidewalk with their kids in tow. This is true laissez faire capitalism at its best: supply and demand; cooperative voluntary interaction. Its structure as a group of buyer/seller equals solidifies a true community.
.
There are ignorant laws here against “price gouging” and “crisis profiteering” – all fascist Nixonian-style idiocies. But if scarce items are in demand and needed, then the producer/ retailer who has the guts and takes the extra effort and risk to get it to us, the consumers who need them, deserves whatever profit he can get, whatever the Free Market – that great liberal law of fairness and voluntary cooperation – can bear. These entrepreneurs are heroes, and I hope their kids see the value of the individualistic effort, thought, and fairness that their parents model for them.
.
After another heavy workout with new sandbags, I took a walk around my familiar neighborhood circuit to check on friends. A couple of them seemed to escape the worst of it so far, but no one is betting on what tomorrow brings.
.
Our soi is almost knee deep in water. Our courtyard is ankle deep now. We have a decent system of levees that we hope keep water out of our living quarters. It all depends on how high the water gets. Parents-in-law live in a loft next door which is high enough to be protected. Tuk and I live on the ground floor and are more vulnerable.
.
Our beloved cats are afraid to go out into the flooded courtyard, so I have brought in sand and am intending to potty train the bloody heathens. Hah! Let’s see how that goes. I'm a rabid individualist, but cats beat me in that category: "Piss on you!" is their motto.
.
My back is killing me, and I hope to have some Chang therapy later. The water outside is half-way to the knee and rising. Water is now coming into our living quarters. Work needs doing. So I shall stop rambling.
.
“If the levee breaks/ I’ll have no place to stay.” -Led Zeppelin.
.
-Zenwind.
.
28 October: Actually, by the time I post this, it is over ankle-deep in floodwater. And the water just keeps on coming.
.
Dawn: Water finally seeped in to our drainage ditch out back, my worst fear because it is the most vile water. Tuk woke me up at midnight to tell me water was appearing. (I am super groggy at night because I am now taking a bigger dose of FMS sleeper meds, my “zonkers,” since this backbreaking sandbag routine started.) I staggered out, and to my horror, saw that while I had slept, Tuk’s mother had decided to move sandbags that I had in reserve to plug totally useless spots. The two of them dragged/ carried/ muscled my reserve bags to the other side of the compound. I was so sedated I had to lean against the wall for support. I threw a few sandbags on the spot I had planned to reinforce at the head of the ditch, then I had to go back to bed and zonk out.
.
Midmorning: This morning I went out at 07:00 and carried the misplaced sandbags back to more useful spots, dripping with sweat before 08:00 – and the sun was not even high yet (and my family in the States said they have already had snow!).
.
Went up to the roof with field glasses to survey the scene. Water coming toward us from the East (from river) and from South and West, turning the streets into rivers. It is a slow inundation, rather than a raging torrent. But it is on the steady rise.
.
Noon: Water invading. One of Tuk’s girlfriends just brought me an entire case of Chang Classic beer. Much appreciated, as doctors never give adequate pain meds to people in pain. Meanwhile, I have been trying to write this, trying to read the incoming news items, and trying to deal with the latest catastrophe. Tuk again found some sandbags and had them delivered by workers she hired from her workplace. These guys are sandbagging experts, and I learned a lot watching them pack those babies in. As I mentioned before, in Vietnam we manhandled many a sandbag, but we stacked them as protection from bullets and incoming explosive rounds – a very different art from stopping water.
.
Mid-afternoon: News reports have said that the flood is bringing out snakes, centipedes, crocodiles, and other critters. Indeed, this afternoon Mother-in-law and I where reinforcing a sandbag levee in the back of the house when I saw a monster centipede a foot long on the lower wall not a foot away from our heads as we were bending over our work. She grabbed a broom and swept it away while saying something in Thai, and the tone said it was not a very welcoming message. The centipede swam away surprisingly fast. That big guy was a creature out of nightmares.
.
Small-time, lower class, country folk entrepreneur families I’ve never seen before are visiting street corners, selling eggs, etc., from backs of small pickup trucks or just from baskets on the sidewalk with their kids in tow. This is true laissez faire capitalism at its best: supply and demand; cooperative voluntary interaction. Its structure as a group of buyer/seller equals solidifies a true community.
.
There are ignorant laws here against “price gouging” and “crisis profiteering” – all fascist Nixonian-style idiocies. But if scarce items are in demand and needed, then the producer/ retailer who has the guts and takes the extra effort and risk to get it to us, the consumers who need them, deserves whatever profit he can get, whatever the Free Market – that great liberal law of fairness and voluntary cooperation – can bear. These entrepreneurs are heroes, and I hope their kids see the value of the individualistic effort, thought, and fairness that their parents model for them.
.
After another heavy workout with new sandbags, I took a walk around my familiar neighborhood circuit to check on friends. A couple of them seemed to escape the worst of it so far, but no one is betting on what tomorrow brings.
.
Our soi is almost knee deep in water. Our courtyard is ankle deep now. We have a decent system of levees that we hope keep water out of our living quarters. It all depends on how high the water gets. Parents-in-law live in a loft next door which is high enough to be protected. Tuk and I live on the ground floor and are more vulnerable.
.
Our beloved cats are afraid to go out into the flooded courtyard, so I have brought in sand and am intending to potty train the bloody heathens. Hah! Let’s see how that goes. I'm a rabid individualist, but cats beat me in that category: "Piss on you!" is their motto.
.
My back is killing me, and I hope to have some Chang therapy later. The water outside is half-way to the knee and rising. Water is now coming into our living quarters. Work needs doing. So I shall stop rambling.
.
“If the levee breaks/ I’ll have no place to stay.” -Led Zeppelin.
.
-Zenwind.
.
27 October 2011
Feeling Beat: Beaten Up and Beaten Down
.
27 October, evening: Screaming pain has now been added to the beat feeling again. (See the earlier note I wrote in the afternoon for the context.) While in the act of heaving the heavy sandbags, I do not hurt so much, but when I sit down afterward it feels like someone hit me square in the back with a baseball bat – a homerun swing.
.
Tuk and I laid a good foundation for levees in four points of floodwater entry to our home. Trying to get the levees watertight is the challenge, and I’m still not sure how well we did the job. I never laid sandbags to stop water before but rather for bullets.
.
I’m in too much pain to write anymore tonight.
.
-Zenwind.
.
27 October, evening: Screaming pain has now been added to the beat feeling again. (See the earlier note I wrote in the afternoon for the context.) While in the act of heaving the heavy sandbags, I do not hurt so much, but when I sit down afterward it feels like someone hit me square in the back with a baseball bat – a homerun swing.
.
Tuk and I laid a good foundation for levees in four points of floodwater entry to our home. Trying to get the levees watertight is the challenge, and I’m still not sure how well we did the job. I never laid sandbags to stop water before but rather for bullets.
.
I’m in too much pain to write anymore tonight.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Sandbagged
.
27 October: My back is absolutely killing me; every muscle in my body is screaming in pain; and, to add to the aggravation, we have a good chance of being flooded tonight. Levees are breaking more and more everywhere around us, like falling dominoes.
.
My pain is the result of working too hard yesterday with heavy sandbags. I have been out of shape for too long, and now I’m paying for it. Being an old guy is no excuse. And the job isn’t even half finished.
.
I never thought that we could ever get sandbags, but yesterday Tuk somehow acquired some big sandbags through her friends. She and I worked last night after sundown, hauling and placing them. I was absolutely wringing wet from sweat by the time we quit for the night.
.
I am not sure that our sandbags will even make any difference, since floodwaters can come into our home through so many different channels. Yesterday, while brainstorming and surveying our home environs, we found many unexpected huge holes in our perimeter that we are unable to plug. So it is now damage control, deciding which areas to try and keep dry, and which to allow to flood, if and when the flood arrives.
.
All of this means going out to manhandle more sandbags tonight, and it probably means getting up during the night to check for incoming water – if I can even move by then. The worst thing about this entire nightmare is its long, drawn-out and never ending character.
.
-Zenwind.
.
27 October: My back is absolutely killing me; every muscle in my body is screaming in pain; and, to add to the aggravation, we have a good chance of being flooded tonight. Levees are breaking more and more everywhere around us, like falling dominoes.
.
My pain is the result of working too hard yesterday with heavy sandbags. I have been out of shape for too long, and now I’m paying for it. Being an old guy is no excuse. And the job isn’t even half finished.
.
I never thought that we could ever get sandbags, but yesterday Tuk somehow acquired some big sandbags through her friends. She and I worked last night after sundown, hauling and placing them. I was absolutely wringing wet from sweat by the time we quit for the night.
.
I am not sure that our sandbags will even make any difference, since floodwaters can come into our home through so many different channels. Yesterday, while brainstorming and surveying our home environs, we found many unexpected huge holes in our perimeter that we are unable to plug. So it is now damage control, deciding which areas to try and keep dry, and which to allow to flood, if and when the flood arrives.
.
All of this means going out to manhandle more sandbags tonight, and it probably means getting up during the night to check for incoming water – if I can even move by then. The worst thing about this entire nightmare is its long, drawn-out and never ending character.
.
-Zenwind.
.
25 October 2011
25 October Thai Flood Report
.
My brother-in-law’s house – some 4 or 5 klicks away from us as the crow flies but reached only by twisted roundabout roads – has major floodwaters surrounding it, so my father-in-law is here with us. Brother-in-law’s house is not yet wet, but it now has about a meter and a half of water menacing it.
.
My midday local recon of the river saw the level down slightly from last night, but I’ve found that doesn’t mean anything since the levels have been fluctuating wildly according to tides and unpredictable runoff from the flooded North. I walked as far down our main street as possible before reaching the section blocked by water. Riverside levees had broken in spots downriver from us.
.
This slow and steady onslaught of floodwaters is wearying. The latest news is that this coming weekend will see the river overflowing its banks in most places because of high tides and runoff. To top it off, a thunderstorm is approaching right now. Dukkha.
.
-Zenwind.
.
My brother-in-law’s house – some 4 or 5 klicks away from us as the crow flies but reached only by twisted roundabout roads – has major floodwaters surrounding it, so my father-in-law is here with us. Brother-in-law’s house is not yet wet, but it now has about a meter and a half of water menacing it.
.
My midday local recon of the river saw the level down slightly from last night, but I’ve found that doesn’t mean anything since the levels have been fluctuating wildly according to tides and unpredictable runoff from the flooded North. I walked as far down our main street as possible before reaching the section blocked by water. Riverside levees had broken in spots downriver from us.
.
This slow and steady onslaught of floodwaters is wearying. The latest news is that this coming weekend will see the river overflowing its banks in most places because of high tides and runoff. To top it off, a thunderstorm is approaching right now. Dukkha.
.
-Zenwind.
.
24 October 2011
I Just Had to Look
.
Evening of 24 October: Of course I just had to do an after-dark recon of the neighborhood, especially after reading increasingly alarming local web reports about flooding events getting closer and closer to us.
.
I was shocked to find the Chao Phraya River was much higher than I had ever seen it, right up to the top of the sandbag levee and flowing fast. Much, much higher than yesterday, and much more than government officials predicted. The water seepage through the river-front levee was up to the sidewalk, and a pathetically thin second levee had been built a bit higher at the sidewalk level. The bottom line is that the river levees here are very close to being overwhelmed.
.
Two of the three main roads connecting our neighborhood with the city are cut off by high water. The third, the bridge over to the east side of the river, is passable at the moment, but the other side has flooded areas. [Update: This bridge is now also closed; we are cut off from resupply; now is the time to go on a strict diet!]
.
I guess this means that I won’t be getting any ice soon.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Evening of 24 October: Of course I just had to do an after-dark recon of the neighborhood, especially after reading increasingly alarming local web reports about flooding events getting closer and closer to us.
.
I was shocked to find the Chao Phraya River was much higher than I had ever seen it, right up to the top of the sandbag levee and flowing fast. Much, much higher than yesterday, and much more than government officials predicted. The water seepage through the river-front levee was up to the sidewalk, and a pathetically thin second levee had been built a bit higher at the sidewalk level. The bottom line is that the river levees here are very close to being overwhelmed.
.
Two of the three main roads connecting our neighborhood with the city are cut off by high water. The third, the bridge over to the east side of the river, is passable at the moment, but the other side has flooded areas. [Update: This bridge is now also closed; we are cut off from resupply; now is the time to go on a strict diet!]
.
I guess this means that I won’t be getting any ice soon.
.
-Zenwind.
.
Breaking Loose
.
24 October: It looks like levees are breaking in places around our area in every direction, and there is a good chance we will get some floodwaters anytime soon, if not tonight. It is not life threatening, as the water should be no more than a few feet high and spreading out slowly. If you don’t see any posts here in the future, it is because I won’t have electricity or an internet connection. It is more of an aggravating inconvenience than a scary situation.
.
-Zenwind.
.
24 October: It looks like levees are breaking in places around our area in every direction, and there is a good chance we will get some floodwaters anytime soon, if not tonight. It is not life threatening, as the water should be no more than a few feet high and spreading out slowly. If you don’t see any posts here in the future, it is because I won’t have electricity or an internet connection. It is more of an aggravating inconvenience than a scary situation.
.
-Zenwind.
.
23 October 2011
No More Ice
.
23 October: This is bad. Local stores are all out of ice because re-supply of almost all items has been discontinued by flood-blocked roads. And our ancient refrigerator has about zero capacity to make ice cubes, so I always stock up on packs of ice from the stores.
.
Street vendors are selling the last of their stuff as everything becomes scarce. Gone everywhere in the neighborhood are: coffee, eggs, canned goods, the better brands of beer, noodles, rice, and drinking water.
.
We have a decent supply of drinking water, and we could always boil tap water if necessary on our propane stove. I have already been stocking up on a few necessities such as cat food. We really don’t need much food for ourselves because no one needs that many calories anyway in this awful heat.
.
The state utility complex next door has added an impressive sandbag wall around their perimeter, so it looks like they will stay dry. But not us, because there are too many avenues for floodwaters to creep in with no ways of blocking it. It may take a full week for the water to get to us, or it might come fast “when the levee breaks.”
-Zenwind.
.
23 October: This is bad. Local stores are all out of ice because re-supply of almost all items has been discontinued by flood-blocked roads. And our ancient refrigerator has about zero capacity to make ice cubes, so I always stock up on packs of ice from the stores.
.
Street vendors are selling the last of their stuff as everything becomes scarce. Gone everywhere in the neighborhood are: coffee, eggs, canned goods, the better brands of beer, noodles, rice, and drinking water.
.
We have a decent supply of drinking water, and we could always boil tap water if necessary on our propane stove. I have already been stocking up on a few necessities such as cat food. We really don’t need much food for ourselves because no one needs that many calories anyway in this awful heat.
.
The state utility complex next door has added an impressive sandbag wall around their perimeter, so it looks like they will stay dry. But not us, because there are too many avenues for floodwaters to creep in with no ways of blocking it. It may take a full week for the water to get to us, or it might come fast “when the levee breaks.”
-Zenwind.
.
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