Fourth Day of Grand Rapids Flooding Photos - 4/20/13

Watching Mayor Heartwell's press conference today, I learned that Riverside Park was closed to everyone - oops! He had driven by in the morning and saw people walking around it. Yeah, me too :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The river is still rising with another foot predicted. The flood walls downtown are holding but sandbags are appearing just in case. Plaza Tower has been evacuated because of a power outage due to water in the basement. JW and Amway are pumping water and fish from their basements. The water is up to the windows in this building - what will another foot do?

Up river the Grand River & the Thornapple are flooding Ada and Lowell and roads are closed. These two photos are from Ada today. Lowell has asked people to stay away...

The River is Rising and Hotels are Pumping ~ 4/19/13

Walking downtown today was a major accomplishment in itself with wind gusts estimated up to 50 mph. Several times I was almost blown completely down, saved by a lamp post grab. But the main story of the day is once again the Grand River.

The Amway Grand Hotel is sandbagging and pumping water from the hotel back into the Grand River.

 The RiverWalk now descends into Davy Jones Locker,

and the water is gaining on the jdek and the carousel.

 Crossing the bridge from the Public Museum, I met a JW Marriott employee who said they are  pumping water out of the lower level and have received about 20 fish on their loading dock. Hang on Grand Rapids...

  4-18-13 Posting - Grand Rapids is Flooding  

 4-17-13 Posting - Fish Ladder Flooded 

Black Cloud - Morrissey 

 

Grand Rapids is Flooding - 4/18/13

Yesterday I snagged photos of the flooded FISH LADDER and today I checked out

the Ford Museum, which has the Grand River rising before it.

As I headed downtown, the skies darkened and more rain threatened.

With just a light drizzle happening, I viewed the expanded Grand River as it stretched toward the Ford Museum. It quickly became dark enough for the lights, now standing in water, to come on. Instead of lighting the way for the RiverWalk, they now only shone their reflections on the water below.

The RiverWalk is under water on both sides of the river.

 

 

 It began to rain heavily,

 

 so I headed back to the car and cruised over to John Ball Park.

 

The geese were unfazed...

Who'll Stop the Rain - CCR

Fish Ladder Flooded - 4/17/13

The water is rising and the fish ladder viewing area is no longer navigable, by humans.

All we can do is stand and watch...

The RiverWalk is now impassable and there was only one cool creature nearby.

 He was quite unperturbed about the situation.

 Five Feet High and Rising - Johnny Cash