Flooding in Benton County

We knew when we moved to Oregon that it would be rainy. Portland is known for rain, though not as well known as Seattle (not to mention Sitka or Ketchikan, but people only known about Sitka from The Proposal). Scott used to make comments that he chose Oregon to attend medical school, because he knew he would never be tempted by the weather to leave his study spot indoors. This is definitely true as of late, because it has rained so much that some of the streets have flooded over.

This may come as a shock, when you think that I just posted about morning campus closure for a light snow dusting. But you may have also heard of the BIG storm in the Northwest on your news. Have you? I'm curious if we come up on your news. I heard that Alaska, Cordova specifically, has had so much snow that they don't know where to put all of it. That amount of moisture has moved to Washington and Oregon in the form of rain.

Though the rain has not flooded our area of Lebanon, I have seen high waters and flooded streets in Corvallis. I heard the tragic story of a family in Albany who's car was sucked into a creek because of high waters in a grocery store parking lot. The radio cautioned that residents of Salem should be aware of flood levels and have their emergency supplies handy in case of evacuation or water supply damage.

Everyone is comparing this storm to a similar storm in 1996, though the rains and snow meltage haven't reached that year's record. OSU campus is closed all day today, though not where I work at the Foundation. I'm keeping my eye on the water report, because I'd really like to make it home this evening, and I forgot my canoe.