Mighty Mississippi River: 1 Lindsey: 0

Lets just say that Wednesday in the life of Lindsey was miserable.  There was a horrible rain and thunderstorm in the afternoon that lasted up until I was leaving from work.  When I got out to the interstate from work, the traffic was at a complete stop.  I didn't think anything of it because I just assumed in bad weather that there were going to be some accidents.  I hopped off at the first exit I could and snaked around on the streets in downtown (I'm getting really good and knowing my way around the city) and got over to the MLK bridge.  It was at a complete stop as well.  The last bridge that could get me across the river to get home was the Eads and it seemed like traffic was moving fine.  I get to the other side of the bridge and see that all the cars into the city were actually just everyone in front of me turning around because the entire Illinois side of the river was flooded. 

ALL THREE BRIDGES FROM ST LOUIS TO ILLINOIS WERE FLOODED OUT!!

This picture was in the news yesterday, it's on the Illinois side of the river at the exchange of I-64 with I-55 and I-70......I drive that road EVERY DAY!!!

--Oh and I didn't add in that during my 5 point turn around maneuver, the lady in the van behind me started flaily her arms to get my attention and told me that my back right tire was flat.....sure enough it wasn't quite scraping on the road but it was not gonna get me home.

--Oh and I didn't add in that this whole debaucle at this point was about 2 hours, and I had to use the bathroom since I left work (I figured I could wait until I got home.....)

These are pictures from a few weeks ago when Scott was visiting....this was at 28ft above normal water levels.  30ft is considered "flooding", although you can clearly see that it's flooding at this level.

If you notice in the picture below, out in the water between the Riverfront sign and the interstate signs is a metal thing sticking out....

That "metal thing" is actually the hat of the huge Tom Sawyer Statue (this picture was from October last year)

The long and short of it is that I went and put air in my tire at a gas station and the attendant told me that the only way across is the bridge that's 20 minutes south of the city, but she didn't know if it was flooded out or not at that point.  I got down there and the road was covered with water but not to the point where you couldn't drive across; all the cars were having the huge "turkey wings" of water from the wheels.  I ended up getting home right at 9pm. 

This weekend it is anticipated that the river is going to get up to 33ft above normal and that is supposed to last through Tuesday.  Maybe I will get out of work a few days on account of rain (and flooding).