Findlay, Ohio - Flood Redux

Here we go again. . .

A mere five months after a devastating flood put most of Findlay, Ohio under water, residents are suffering from a bad sense of deja vu. From The Findlay Courier:

People were moving to higher ground and preparing for the worst as forecasters predicted that flooding would continue to rise in an area where many were still recovering from the historic floods of five months ago.

The rising waters were was another blow to residents and business owners in the northwest Ohio city along the Blanchard River were just getting their lives back to normal after flooding in August displaced hundreds and caused millions of dollars in damage.

"We had the place completely gutted," said Scott Adams, who owns a downtown music store. "I don't see fixing the place again."

The river had risen to 16.1 feet shortly before midnight and was expected to crest around 7 a.m. at 16.5 feet, said Jim Barker, the city's safety director.

"It's far more than the National Weather Service had predicted," Barker said. "We have a ways to go yet before we're out of the woods, but hopefully by early morning we'll have a good grip on it and it will start to go down."

Adams was busy yesterday loading guitars, drums and amplifiers into a trailer. Only a few empty display cases were left in his shop.

Linda Crace emptied her basement and garage, putting a lawn mower on her porch, boxes of clothes in her dining room and a washer and dryer in the kitchen.

"Not again," she said. "You don't get used to it, you just deal with it."

Next door, Gary Pettite helped his son-in-law load a trailer. It was all he could do. "These people have been through enough," he said.

The flooding isn't expected to be as bad as it was in August, when waters topped 18 feet in the city's worst flooding since 1913.

Firefighters yesterday evacuated a handful of residents and others left on their own after moving their belongings to higher ground. One person was rescued from a car and a handful of people took shelter at a site on a community college campus. At least 100 homes had suffered some water damage, Barker said.

Much of the state remained waterlogged this morning following three days of heavy rain and melting snow. Flood warnings remained in effect throughout west-central, northwest and northeast Ohio, from Toledo to Cleveland to Youngstown.

Your Hoosier neighbors wish you all the best during this time of distress. Here in the somewhat mis-named "Summit City" (Fort Wayne), we know all about tragic floods.