Flooding in Gettysburg

I just got home from work about an hour ago. Usually on my way home, I head for the park (afterall, I live right down the street from it). I always try to take a quick drive through every day just to be there. Today was no different. But things were a little bit different. We are having one horrible rain storm (I am SOOOO very, very thankful that the temperatures are in the 50's today....I would hate to think about how much snow this would be).

There are certain parts of the battlefield that are prone to flooding....mostly anywhere that a creek or run runs through. Today with this storm, the flooding has happened but it is so much worse than I have ever seen it before. I drove down Wheatfield Road to get to the Devil's Den/Plum Run Valley area. The flooding in this area is normal. Everytime we get quite a bit of rain this area immediately floods. But what I saw today was unbelievable. First of all, the ground next to the roadway is lower than the road surface itself. The water usually gets up within a few feet of the road surface, but the road doesn't ever flood. Today, the water is about 2 inches from the roadway. The small bridge that goes over Plum Run is all but under water. The water is just a couple of inches from the bridge itself. I drove over it, but I felt very uneasy about it.....I was waiting for the bridge to get swept away. The Run in that area is easily 100 yards wide....and this is a small waterway that you can jump over on any good day. I have never seen it this flooded.

I got down to the Devil's Den area and was just stunned at the water. It was everywhere...but especially up to the road....which it never does. There is a "comfort station" (aka....bathroom) at the Devil's Den but in order to get to it, you have to walk across this little footbridge and cross Plum Run. Normally the bridge is nice and you get to look down in the Run and see some water creatures (frogs, fish, crayfish, etc) but you're not going to see anything like that today. First, you can't even get to the bridge. It's an island. The water is going under and around the bridge. The steps leading up to the bridge are under water, but the bridge itself is not. That's kind of ironic. The bridge is an island.

Then I drove down around the den and watched the Run tumble over and around the rocks. I just can't believe how much water we have gotten from this storm. Its unreal.

Then I went down Sedgwick Ave to get to Hancock Avenue. I realized that there was a truck sitting in the roadway facing me (but the road is one way.....heading in the same direction that I am going). It was the Park Maintenance employees (and these guys are my heroes). They were trying to open a storm sewer to let the water go down it. But the water was a couple of inches deep across the road and these poor men were standing in water that must have been half way to their knees.

This storm is very strange. One minute its not raining at all. I had my windows rolled down so that I could see better and had no trouble with rain coming in....and then all of a sudden its like the sky would just open up and you could barely see to drive. And then in a couple of minutes, no rain any more.

I would love to show you pictures of the park, but I didn't have my camera with me. I've been taking my Coddington to work with me and my purse can handle either the book or my camera....but not both. I really don't want to leave the house either. This storm is bad and I like watching it from my window and not from my car.