Thankfully, the water is outside the buildings, for the most part.
Not exactly the way I wanted to spend Memorial Day weekend. A lot of us making the best of it or changing our plans. But at least it’s mostly disappointment in the air along with the rain.
Still, the storms brought tragedy as high waters claimed the life of a Claremore firefighter.
It was Memorial Day weekend thirty-one years ago that the storm was such an event that it was described as a Hundred-Year Flood and water rose to startling levels. Those of you who recall that weekend remember the months of recovery. Ruined household items like mattresses, carpeting, and sheetrock lining the curbs for pickup.
Particularly shocking to me was a reminder that remained for months on the Broken Arrow Expressway near the downtown exit. Along the route I drove every morning while heading to work was a line sprayed on a cement bridge pillar. Painted underneath it were words to the effect of “high water mark.” That line was so high up that it had to have been painted from an aerial ladder or cherry picker crane.
The Tulsa World headline in the image attests to the extent of that tragic event, and prompted major flood-management projects that certainly aided in slowing the floodwaters Saturday night. Some of you may be young enough to have grown up with the many bowl-shaped soccer fields located throughout the Tulsa area. Those grassy areas are the result of that 1984 flood and were designed to trap and manage flood runoff.
In the aftermath, there was so much information that needed to be passed along that our newscasts on K95FM seemed to be nothing more that clean-up tips and safety precautions. For weeks on end. But from that tragic event came storm management routines that came into play Saturday night.
More storms are forecast for the remainder of the weekend, but if the meteorologists hit their mark, they won’t be quite as powerful in the Tulsa area. Still a disappointing forecast for a lot of folks with holiday plans, but calling off a cookout is a lot easier to deal with than facing the effects of three feet of water in your living room.
Memories of that weekend so many years ago made me worried about the bookshop, where we haven’t experienced that amount of water since the Main Street renovation project. Before the street construction, I remember watching during a storm as a river of water raced down the street and lapped over the curb. Back then, there weren’t storm drains along Main. Thankfully, that has been corrected.
With all the reports of waterlogged streets Saturday night, I opted to wait until morning to inspect and thankfully all is well here, high and dry inside. Outside, later in the afternoon, there was a surprise of a different sort. I was taking out some trash and spotted some scurrying specks on the car.
All over it.
By the time I got the camera out they were mostly gone, and when there were only a dozen or so, they were harder to spot. Speedy too. Hard to photograph.
But I managed to get a couple of shots of the flood of newly hatched praying mantis babies, which are only slightly larger than the raindrops dotting the car hood. One of those Discovery Channel moments that allowed me to see something for the first time ever.
Hopefully for the last time, too. Kinda creepy.
We’ll be having a rare two-day weekend and will be closed Monday for Memorial Day. Hope yours is safe even if it probably won’t be dry.
On Tuesday? Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!
