A year or two ago, I went to my bank–the branch literally being just behind my place. I had some things I would’ve liked to put in a safe deposit box. Our place is on the ground floor, with our bedroom window leading onto the street. There were a couple of cars stolen out of our underground parking, and some kids had climbed up to the first floor balconies in our courtyard and taken some electronics or something. I was feeling antsy, obviously, and thought it was the right move. It took me awhile to figure out how to say safety deposit box, and when I went to ask, the receptionist looked at me like I was a crazy person. “Oh, we don’t have those here. We’re in a flood zone.”
The river is nearby, but I couldn’t quite imagine the waters rising the 300 odd yards from the riverbed up to the bank on the corner. Until the last couple of days, that is. There’s a lock just upstream from our place. There’s about a 10-15 foot drop depending on the day, which creates a sort of waterfall–a much welcome white noise that always reminds me we are not actually that far from the sea. The last couple of days, the dog walks in front of our place have been abnormally quiet. The river had swelled so much, that the 15-foot waterfall was no longer. The lock rendered unnecessary.
Then, on my normal Wednesday 5k circuit, I encountered a problem:
My running path had flooded. I managed to bound across this roadblock without too much damage. But the news got worse as I advanced.
I usually run down the ramp to the right, and along the cobblestoned, tree-lined quai. The trees seem to be struggling to keep their head above water. Things cleared up as I made it across the bridge and back east along the bike path. But as I got onto the last stretch, where I typically jog along the boardwalk I spotted this:
The entire boardwalk on the left bank of the Marne was inundated. So this kid had to stick to the sidewalk. Not such a tragic thing, as I am pretty sure there’s this giant muskrat following me along the river during my runs.
At least someone was happy about the newfound abundance of puddles near and far.
