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Spilling the banks

Lehigh concrete silos down on aptly named Water Street

Some developer wants to put condo towers down here, on top of a sacrificial parking deck. How much would you pay for a river view with occasional evacuations? Also, the towers would mess up the view from Libby Hill Park.

Richmond wasn't hit quite as hard as some places by the big mid-Atlantic deluge which washed out bridges, caused deadly floods, and shut down bits and pieces of the federal government. A few streets along the river are closed and tonight the James River was at 14 feet on the gauge down at Great Ship Lock Park. I have pictures of the gauge from tonight and with the river at a normal level back at the end of April.

On the radio they said the James would be up today. I was so busy with work that I completely forgot about it, until I went for a walk about eight o'clock and saw from the park how the Slave Docks across the river were flooded out. Rather than continue with my regular constitutional, I walked down to Great Ship Lock Park and called Oz. He left off installing software and drove down to meet me. We, along with lots of other people, ended up taking a little flood tour.

Nothing brings out the tourists like disaster. "Well, it's more of a disaster-ette."

Oz said, "It's not even that. It's a 'water event.' Twelve feet of water up where we are, now that's a disaster."