Weekend Notes

Yesterday was moving day for C, thus the flip of the blog schedule and your Weekend Notes dropping on a Tuesday.

The Flood of ’26

Well, things certainly got interesting here over the weekend on the weather tip.

Our week of torrential downpours culminated with the White River flooding through Carmel and northern Indianapolis Saturday morning. All the water that had overwhelmed the White to our northeast was headed our way. There was a chance of morning rain, but when I went to bed Friday it seemed like it might miss us or be brief.

Yet I was jolted out of bed around 7:15 by house-shaking thunder. That was the first of two heavy storms that came through before noon. Which, again, was just as the White River was already reaching near record levels.

As we watched the news we saw footage of roads not too far from us completely submerged by flood waters. A neighborhood two miles to the south was under an evacuation order. Flood gates we didn’t know existed were being shut to try to protect the Broad Ripple area. Right at the Carmel-Indianapolis line, a road we took to school for seven years was completely washed away. I’m not saying it was under water, as happened a couple times when we lived to the north. I’m saying the road surface and supporting structure beneath was just gone. It will take months, perhaps a year, to repair it.

About a mile from our old house the same thing happened to another road on Sunday. In this case a bridge was completely destroyed as the river overwhelmed a smaller stream. This is especially concerning because it is shifting the path of the river and dumping much of it into a massive, industrial gravel mining pit. I have yet to see an update today but Monday evening engineers were saying there was a 75% chance that the entire river would divert into the pit until it was full. If that happens, a system that carries most of Carmel’s raw sewage could be destroyed. Ironically this is helping people downstream – at least until raw sewage starts leaking – by diverting much of the river’s extra capacity.

On the news this morning they said it could take up to two years to rebuild this bridge.

We were extremely fortunate. Our house is elevated on our property, and uphill from the nearest bend in the White River. We just had a stream through our front yard, 50 feet from our front door, where the water always collects. Our power went off briefly during the first severe storm last Tuesday, then again Wednesday while repairs were being done near us. All our trees survived. The block directly across from us lost multiple trees, and crews have been working at different houses for several days in a row. Saturday our water pressure got low for about an hour. We don’t know if that was related to flooding or some other issue.

S and I took a walk Saturday afternoon. Just one mile from our house, in an area that is prone to flooding, we came across two homes that had their garage doors open and at least four feet of water inside. These were built similar to beach homes, with no living area at ground level, but their garages and storage rooms have to be total losses.

We’ve lived through a few small floods in our time here, but never anything like this.

Fortunately it seems like the pattern has finally shifted. We’ve had a couple spotty showers the last two days but those daily storms that lined up and trained over the same area for hours over consecutive days have shifted away. For the most part, the next week looks dry and sunny, which hopefully means the people who have been most affected get a chance to dry out and attempt to repair.

Move In Day

Yesterday C and I packed up two cars with all her stuff and moved her back to Bloomington. She is living with a friend she made last year, S, and then S’s older sister A and her friend L. A and L lived in the same apartment last year so it was already partially furnished and appointed when we got there.

The apartment is about 10 minutes from campus, on the southeast side of B-town. It isn’t super bougie the way some are these days, but it is nice enough.¹ There is a pool, sand volleyball court, clubhouse with a gym, and lots of outdoor common areas. Best of all, lots of free parking so she should always be able to park safely whenever she comes back in the evening. The bedrooms are actually the biggest part of the apartment, which is kind of nice. There’s a grocery store and a few fast food places in walking distance. There’s a stop for the campus shuttle right across from her building.

The move itself was pretty easy. I think the hardest part was loading up here, as I did most of it on my own and it was humid and nasty.² When we arrived, S’s parents were still around and her dad helped us shuttle items inside, which made unloading go a lot easier. I helped C get unpacked and arranged for a couple hours so she had some sense of order before taking her to dinner then heading back to Indy.

As I learned two years ago with M, the sophomore year drop-off isn’t nearly as emotional as freshman year. That was certainly true yesterday and it wasn’t even a proper drop-off. C will drive back home later today because she has an appointment tomorrow to get the second of two crowns put in. Then Thursday S and I will go back down with her to help her do a little more work and so S can see her place.

C will come home again over the weekend to help with L’s makeup and hair for her senior pictures Sunday.

So I guess Sunday evening will be our proper goodbye with her.

So things are finally getting back to normal here. Or normal of one year, I guess. It will certainly be quieter here today, not that C makes much noise. Her car did need an unexpected, rather pricey repair last week. L’s new (old) car goes into the shop Thursday to check an issue that we hope is covered by the warranty. It never ends, even when they start moving out.

1. C has multiple friends paying over twice what her monthly rent is. And I wouldn’t say her rent is cheap.
2. No other comment needed about the level of assistance I received.