It's not the wind, it's the water

The rivers crested today.  I've never witnessed serious flooding before and I sincerely hope I never will again.  The speed of the water and the flooding was just amazing.  There is the street next to the dock in the morning

and here is that same street less than 3 hours later

Unfortunately, those people standing there live down that road.  One of them had to have their dog rescued by canoe.

The water in the Mohawk River is flowing 30 times faster than normal. It comes from the south and the old Erie and Champlain Canals (from the 19th century) both flow to our north.  The result is this merging of the flows in front of the lock we are behind.  Those bumps down the middle of the picture are signs on a pier you can't see providing instructions on how to enter the canal.

Facing east from Lock 2

Same view after the flooding 

Here are a few more morning and afternoon comparison shots, taken about three hours apart.

The park fence was already disappearing in the morning

But it was gone in the afternoon

Fences without flood

Park in the morning, two tiers above water

Park in the afternoon, only one tier left

Park after the water receded

I can't speak highly enough of the the NY Canal Commission.  First of all they saved us from ourselves by requiring us to come into the locks.  This picture of the docks where we were tied up says it all.  We were on the piece of the dock that is crumpled up under the bridge.  Even the piece that looks flat is six feet higher than it was Sunday morning and there is water on both sides of the dock in the picture.  Before Irene that was a six foot high concrete wall to the left of the dock.

After the hurricane

The folks from the Canal Commission were here at the lock before 11:00 AM Monday morning.  They told us where the grocery store and laundromat are and made a car available to all of us stuck here so that we can get to either if we need to.  This afternoon another Canal Commission employee came by to see if we needed water or ice.  At the next lock up, lock 3, they've put in extension cords that make it possible for every boat trapped up there to have power.  Fortunately, we have solar panels and a generator so power isn't an issue for us.  The canal toilet and shower facilities that are normally meant for the lock master have been opened to us as well.

The bad news is that we don't know how long we may be here.  It could be weeks.  We are headed west and three of the locks west of us were flooded.  No one can yet tell us when (or if) the Canal may open again.

Most of the boats stuck in here with us are headed south.  They may get to leave long before we do.  The only things keeping them here are the flooding, which will subside soon, and the federal lock on the Hudson River.  We haven't yet heard about the status of the federal lock.  Apparently the Troy Yacht Club docks broke loose and flowed down to the lock with boats still attached.  We've heard that two boats went over the 

dam and two more hit the lock gates.  We also heard that an RV floated down the river to the lock.

So until the rivers calm down a bit, we remain members of the Lock 2 yacht club with the other five pleasure boats, two Canal Commission tugs, and the City of Waterford's historic tug, the Buffalo.

Lock 2 Yacht Club