Time to Clean Again

Just a fair warning.  The images in this blog post may get you sick to your stomach.  If you just ate or are planning on eating any time in the next week you may not want to view some of these photos.

 

I woke up this morning and walked down my street and then walked down a few other streets, including Williams Street.  As I walked I took a few pictures which I will post here now.

 

The word disgusting would almost be a complement to what this area looks like now.

 

Back of Zeliff Ave. Little Falls

Back of Zeliff Ave. Little Falls

Huge chunk of road missing on Zeliff Ave.

Huge chunk of road missing on Zeliff Ave.

Phil Simone Cleaning the Roads

Phil Simone Cleaning the Roads manually. Thank You Phil!

I turned the corner and went around to the park to get a few shots of whatever garbage floated into there.  Not pretty, really not pretty.

 

The Park Garbage

The Park Garbage

 

Port-a-Potty in Park

Yes, that is a port-a-potty on its side in the park.

 

More Park Garbage

More Park Garbage

 

Bucket Loader Dropping Garbage into Truck

Bucket Loader Dropping Garbage into Truck

 

Family photo lost in the flood

Family photo lost in the flood

I turned and went down Williams Street, which was horrific looking when the flood water was there late last week. The garbage was all over the place but the bucket loader was getting as much as it could as fast as it could.  I was told that the bucket loader actually started picking the trash up from the road at 12:45AM this morning and worked through the night this time.  Here are a few shots of some that hadn’t been cleaned up yet.

 

Garbage against Williams St. house

Garbabage against Williams St. house

 

Paint cans and construction debris

Paint cans and construction debris

 

Nails on the road

There are nails all over the road on Williams St.

 

Torn up yard

Yard torn up from bucket loaders

 

That last image of the yard that was torn up from the bucket loaders isn’t something that can really be helped.  The bucket loaders need to get around and get that garbage so the rest of the clean up can begin.

Good luck fellow residents, I’m sure I’ll be coming around to get pictures of everything when cleanup is complete.

 

~NFM

 

An Update on Willowbrook Mall (New Flood)

I know you guys love news on Willowbrook Mall.  I went out yesterday with a low powered camera (still better than my cell phone) and then again today with a professional camera.  I’ll show you some pictures of how it looks.  It’s not even remotely as bad as it was a little over a week ago but from my understanding the mall is currently closed.  Honestly, it looks like Rt. 23 is going to be completely closed in front of the mall soon.  It’s closed southbound right now, however the water is starting to flow a little more across onto the northbound side.

Oh, first things first….we have another genius driver!

The first time it was a Red SUV….now it’s a Blue SUV.  Somebody should tell them it’s “Sport Utility Vehicle” not “Submersible Utility Vehicle”.

Bad Parking Job

Bad Parking Job 9/8/11

We’ll revisit this guy later…a few times…

So, yesterday the water pretty much came up through Willowbrook Car Wash and into the parking lot of the buffet.  Here are a few more shots of yesterday.

 

Hooters

Wonder if they are going to offer the "Water View" seating again...

 

Rt 23 Willowbrook

Rt. 23 at Willowbrook 9/8/11

 

Hobson Ave by Willowbrook

Hobson Ave by Willowbrook 9/8/11

 

That was yesterday.  I went back just now with a professional Canon Digital Rebel XTi and took some more shots.

 

How about we revisit that Blue SUV that did such a great parking job.

Stupid SUV Driver

Seriously, does this need a caption?

 

So, just how deep is the water by that SUV?

 

Why don’t we ask these guys?

 

Motor Boat passes SUV

You have failed as a driver if a motor boat can drive inches from your parked SUV

 

Let’s take a look at the area around Willowbrook

 

MiniFridge Stuck on Wall

MiniFridge Stuck on Wall

 

Willowbrook Blvd at Rt 23

Willowbrook Blvd at Rt 23 9/9/11

 

Hobson Ave by Willowbrook

Water still rising at Hobson Ave

 

Buffet behind Hooters

Buffet behind Hooters

 

I haven’t walked over to the mall itself yet but I don’t believe it’s nearly as bad as it was with the last flood.  I’m sure Willowbrook Blvd. is under water though.

I’ll probably head out tomorrow after the river crests to see how it looks.

 

Also, here’s where I put in my quick plug!  With the mall area under water….you could always shop online!

 

~NFM

Williams Street Trash River

Apparently the town wanted CBS News to leave Williams Street because it was showing video of the trash floating in the street since the town didn’t bother picking up any of the trash until the street flooded again.  So much for “Freedom of the Press” huh?  One of the rare occasions that the news actually starts reporting on something we would want them to report on and they are told to leave.

Good thing I got some pictures that will make your jaw drop.

 

Here is what Little Falls did not want you to see.

 

Williams Trash Street

Williams Trash Street

 

More Floating Trash on Williams Street

More Floating Trash on Williams Street

 

In an “oh crap let’s not make it worse” decision the town had left the pumps on until the bucket loaders cleaned up as much trash as they could.  Otherwise the river would have come into the streets faster and all the trash would have been nailed by the river’s current sending it into people’s back yards faster and wilder.

 

Turning off the pump

Bucket Loader Heading Down to Turn off the Pump

 

Someone near me asked what the bucket loader was doing, originally thinking it was going to get the floating refrigerator seen in the image above.  I said “It’s driving down to create waves to send more trash and water into people’s basements”.  Yea, I’m a smart ass.  However, it is true that these vehicles, and the boats that have to go rescue the people that don’t bother leaving their houses when they are told to evacuate, do create waves and wakes that send more water into people’s homes.  Not realizing that I didn’t bother turning on the brain to mouth filter I was quickly snapped at by town employee Phil Simone.  He quickly turned and said, rather sharply, “No! They are driving down to turn off the pumps!”.

 

Simone and Town Engineer

Phil Simone (Left) and the Little Falls Town Engineer (Photo by Carlos)

 

Simone and Little Falls Town Engineer

Come on....I HAD to include this picture! (Photo by Carlos)

 

I haven’t been out to Williams St. today yet but most of the trash is gone off of my street.  Oh, don’t think that’s a good thing.  That only means that the trash is now either A) Sitting in a residents back yard or B) Floating down stream to another residents back yard.

Oh, by the way, let’s not forget that a lot of trash is also coming from other towns that never bothered to clean up after the last flood.  Thanks guys!

 

~NFM

Pro”trash”stination in the Oncoming Flood

When your town takes a nap during clean up…there’s only one way to get it done quickly.

 

Heavy Machinery!

 

The quicker picker upper

The quicker picker upper

 

Little Falls decided it would be “smarter” to clean up the Main Street end of all of the streets rather than the side that floods first.  Because of this “intelligent” decision the areas that the water is coming in STILL has trash and house debris sitting on the sidewalks and curbs.  Now they’ve called in the heavy machinery to heft up the debris and drop it in the large dumpsters.

 

Should I mention that these guys have all the finesse of a bull in a china shop?

Garbage Street

Garbage Floating through the street

 

The machines may be picking up huge chunks of debris and trash, but they are dropping little bits into the water that are going to just float into the backyards and down the river.  The amount of trash on my street is sickening.  I’m going to post a few more shots of it now.

 

Garbage on Street 2

Picking up lots of trash but dropping lots as well

 

Floating Mattress

A floating mattress

 

I’m going to head over to Williams Street because I was told that the trash is even worse there.  It was just on CBS News…but I figured you want to see more than 6 seconds of the water running in the streets.

 

~NFM

 

 

Little Falls Floods of 2011 Round 3 (30 Minutes Later)

Street Flooding 30 Minutes Later

Approx 30 Minutes after I took the last picture

 

It looks like the cleanup crew may be gone.  The water is coming in pretty quickly.  At least the sun is out right now, but it’s due to rain like crazy for the next two days.  Last time I checked the measurements we’re due to crest at 11.9′ which is .1′ over the March floods.  However that number seems to change every few hours.  That’s the number that I would call “official” though, even though I’ve heard we may get over 13′, or even over the 1903 record.  We’re in for one hell of a weekend.