Yaz and I took a ride down to the CT River today at about 3PM. That was within a few hours of the peak at 19.4'.
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=box&gage=hfdc3&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6It was quite an experience. The river looked swollen. The current was strapping. The normal mud banks are about 20' high in the summer. Today the water was within inches of overflowing these natural boundaries. In other areas the flood plains were being used and the river was at least 1 mile wide in some places.
There was lots of debris flowing; ice, logs, plastic bottles, KW-1's... it was like a floatilla. The water was moving at about 8 mph. There is no way a person could paddle a boat upstream in that.
I put a stake marking the water line when I arrived and noticed it had creeped higher when I left.
We walked by our favorite sandbar that has an inlet leading to a cove in the summer. All you could see were tree branches with everything else submerged. It's amazing what a difference 20' in water height can make.
I read in the paper that the Housatonic River in CT had cars and sheds floating down it.
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