Sky after rain; cottonwoods

[neverspent]

After the water rose and the rain fell, and the rain fell and fell and the water kept rising, and people escaped in boats and moved into gymnasiums, schools closed and parks were inundated and the rain kept falling -- after all that when a space cleared to show part of the morning, the sheet of clouds was reaching out long thin fingers across the southern sky, elbows and toes in the north, and the sun shot through a hole in the clouds to the east.



I visited the park by the river, and the cottonwood cotton is really flying now. Walking through the park is like flying through a starfield, with bits of white floating past your face and on behind. The cotton gathers on the standing water and looks like slushy snow, or in fluffy piles at the edge of the grass.

Out in the middle of the river, the water is still so fast you can hear it rushing from shore, a couple of hundred yards away.

Comments

[shinsetsu]

Those clouds look sinister to me--like they are planning something.

The story about the government exploding the levees above Cairo just boggles my mind.

[neverspent]

I can see what you mean about the clouds! I think I was pleasantly distracted by being able to actually see the sky, finally. :)

Man, I feel for those farmers around Cairo. Apparently the Mississippi is so high, it's flowing BACKWARDS into the tributaries, which is part of the problem down our way. Gah.

[shinsetsu]

That reminds me of when I read PANTHER IN THE SKY, the absolutely wonderful book about Tecumseh and how he prophesied the New Madrid earthquake, which was actually a series of some of the strongest quakes the US has ever had and were in the Arkansas/Missouri Bootheel area. Chimneys fell in Maine from it, and the mighty Mississippi was uplifted and turned back upon itself due to the earth's upheaval. The statistics for these quakes are awesome. I think many young people in this country have never heard about it though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php

http://www.ratical.com/ratville/Tecumseh.html

That last narrative is from Alan Eckert's book, who is very good, but Alexander Thom's book on Tecumseh is exquisite. :)

[shinsetsu]

James Alexander Thom is his name. I forgot the 'James' part.

[shinsetsu]

And it's actually Allan W. Eckert, so I messed that name up too.