bbain wrote:Swimming in flood waters is potentially dangerous, not so much due to the physical dangers (currents, obstructions, etc.) which can be quite real, but also because such flooding often causes storm sewers and water treatment plants to discharge untreated waters into the rivers, leading to typhoid snd other water-borne nasties. Exposure suits, typically dry suits (for protection against scrapes, abrasions, etc.), and full face masks are usually recommended to minimize potential infsctions, along with up-to-date tetanus and typhoid vaccinations.
As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, "be careful out there."
I hear you.
To be certain, I don't put myself in needless risk, and I would NEVER put my son in jeopardy of any kind!
Today, now 3 days on, it's getting pretty foul and is nothing I want to even wade in, however, we took that photo within a hour or so of it having stopped raining, it hadn't reached the sewer, and it was still nice an clean, almost. We were definitely not in any areas of current from storm run-off either. The mission was to swim from one side of the back yard to the other with a short loop around the small walnut tree in the second photo, but it was cold and we mostly just splashed around. It seemed like a, hopefully, once-in-a-lifetime chance and maybe some day when my son is in his 60's and I'm gone, he will look at the photo and laugh about some of the goofy stuff we got ourselves into and made Mom take a picture of.
On a more serious note, there are a lot of people in Nashville, downstream of the dam I am just above, that got hit pretty hard and lost everything. It's tough to beat the RedCross as a clearing house for monetary donations if a person was so inclined. They are always quick to show up and do good work at critical moments, but just an extra Prayer or two sent this way would be plenty generous, and would be something the folks of Nashville would really appreciate. Thanks again, Fred