Last Minute Preparations Made for Rising Waters

The imminent closing of the marina has brought lots of last minute preparations to Sunset.  Monday evening there were still seven boats left in the front parking lot (*1); by this afternoon there was one left and I’m told that one’s going in tomorrow.  The back lot (*2) still has about 20 left in it, but about half of those are on trailers.  The crew at the marina says, that with few exceptions, they should all be in by Friday.  A couple of the boat owners were there today getting the finishing touches applied to their babies.  Elsewhere in the marina other signs of  “packing up the sidewalks” could be seen, such as taking down the fences from around the dumpsters and gathering loose equipment.

Thursday the marina plans to sandbag the erected floodwall that runs along in front of the office building’s (*3) windows.  After Friday Sunset’s secretary, Monica, says the office will be moving to the public works building.  The phones will be transferred to there so they can be reached via the same phone number.

Sunset Park (*4) continues to get narrower as the water levels rise also.  The backwater in between the east side of the park and the interstate (*5) now stretches unbroken from the park’s south parking lots all the way to the interstate’s embankments.  About 11 a.m. today I stopped by the picnic shelter near the ball diamond (*6).  Its parking lot is blocked off but you could still walk to it with out getting wet.  The last bit of sidewalk leading up to it was wet but didn’t actually have water on it.  The water came up to the edge of the shelter itself, but sitting on its three- or four-inch foundation it was still a dry island.  Six hours later, at 5 p.m., the path was now covered with water and about 10 square feet of the shelter had water on it.  The flood's-a-come’n.

*  In case you’re not familiar with Sunset Marina’s layout I’ll try and fit the parts of the marina I mention into the aerial picture of the marina at the top of this blog.  The bottom of the picture is the west side.  Further to the west is the Mississippi, and beyond that Iowa.  (Yes, the river runs North and South here, the only place in the Quad-Cities.)

1. Front parking lot:  Above and just to the lefht of the buildings at the center, right-hand side of the picture.

2. The back lot: Just below the buildings at the center, right-hand side of the picture.

3. The office buildings: The buildings at the center, right-hand side of the picture.

4. Sunset Park: Just above the marina, left 2/3s of the picture.

5. Interstate: Runs along the top of the picture.

6. Ball diamond: In Sunset Park, just beyond the left side of the picture.