The river rises...anxiety ensues

(This photo is of the bridge near my office in 1997, not today, hopefully.)
Last week wasn't particularly productive, unless you count the progress I made on GTA. I waited, fruitlessly, for notification of my appointment with the neurosurgeon and watched the river rise slowly. This weekend it really came up fast. So much so, that Sunday, when I went to meet Andy to pick up Megan, it took me 2 hours of driving to find a passable road! I finally got through at a spot which was dry when i passed going east and covered with 2 inches of water when i returned not 30 minutes later. That's right folks, it's flood season in the Red River Valley. If I'd tried to get through just 30 minutes later, I wouldn't have made it and Megan would have been stuck in Minnesota until the flood water receeded (She thought this was cool, by the way, cuz she would have been out of school for the better part of week). This morning they are closing the bridge downtown, about 3 blocks from my office. The river is supposed to crest at 47.something feet. My source of anxiety is the flood wall system. In 1997, we had a fuck-all flood that flooded the entire city (among others) and caused a fire that burned several buildings downtown to the ground. Some 60,000 people had to be evacuated (which is nothing compared to New Orleans, but was impressive at the time) and in the end, the Army Corps of Engineers decided we needed a newer, higher flood protection system. Flash forward to 2006, 9 years later. There is still a section, about ..oh...100 feet long, of flood wall that is not completed. It happens to be RIGHT behind MY office. And my feeling is that a flood wall with a hole in it is pretty much useless. So, this morning, when I finish this blog, I will be heading downtown, into the basement of my building, into the damp moldy darkness to get the stuff we have in storage out and up to the 2nd flood. All of our Art Festival junk is down there so it should take me quite awhile. I am taking a stokepile of Coffee, Percoset (for my back) and Benedryll (for my mold allergies) and should be quite miserable by day's end.
(The photo below shows the location of my office, incase you need to send help. :) )