“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been” seems to be the word on the streets—the very wet streets—in much of the Midwest. Storms and flooding today, Tuesday, caused damage and killed at least four people in Ohio and Tennessee. But in Ohio the Blanchard River topped out at a lower-than-expected level—only 5 ½ feet above flood level—and to many who remember worse flooding a few years ago, that seemed like a relatively good outcome.
The combination of rains and snowmelt caused much of the flooding throughout Ohio. In Tennessee, three people were killed in incidents related to heavy winds and rain, including a public works employee who died while trying to pull debris out of a drain pipe.
Comments from people in the flooded areas, quoted by the Associated Press, indicate that the storms’ severity—or at least the perception of it—is increasing. “This doesn’t even shock you anymore,” said one Ohio man. A shop owner whose business was flooded four years ago noted that his town of Findlay, people expect floods just about every time it rains.
Are you in one of the areas that has flooded this week? Are weather patterns are changing in your area—are storms getting larger or more frequent?