Thank goodness we live on the Hill

Lowell is flooding. Pretty seriously. The University closed for the day, streets all over town are impassable, and people are being evacuated from several areas of the city. This is a repeat of last May, when the city had a 70-year flood. According to the Lowell Sun, this morning the Merrimack was at nearly 57 feet, which is just a foot shy of the peak during last year's flood. And the river's still rising. We're going to walk into town in a little while to check things out.

This is a picture from last May's flood. Those metal bars are the railings on a walkway that was completely covered. There are apartments that were flooded in the old mill building. I'm sure they're flooded again, sadly.



Thankfully, no water in our basement so far.

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Update a few hours later:

We're back from exploring the city. There's a lot of water out there.

Here's today's image from roughly the same spot as last year's flood:



We should get a photo of the spot without the flooding, but that's the river walk down there; if you've visited us here in Lowell, we've probably taken you for a walk right through this spot.

Here's another spot on the riverwalk:


There was also some excitement for Carter.


He actually waded out there, chest-deep into the water to say hello to the ducks. Actually, we're not sure if he wanted to eat the ducks or just meet the ducks. We kept a tight hold on his leash the whole time.

This picture shows one of the reasons I love living in an old city (even if it does flood).


A bridge built today would never have such details. Lowell is called "The Flowering City" (I'm not sure who came up with this promotion or when, but I like it) and this is just one of the lovely details.