High waters ahead

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

It’s 9:50 Monday night.

I confess: I’m sitting here watching a rerun of Friends as I cruise the Internet looking for flood information. It’s the one where Rachel goes to England to ruin Ross’ wedding. Did you notice Monica and Chandler have perfectly complementary skin tones?

So, where do you go when you want a little prediction about the potential for flooding in the Truckee Meadows? Well, first, I go to last week’s flood story, http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=oid%3A47342, which showed that Washoe County has a de facto policy of not protecting citizens of Reno and Sparks from floods. I’ve talked to too many people who’ve been devastated by floods over the years not to be a little irritated by that—no matter how laudatory the reasons for the policy.

At any rate, as naked Monica and Chandler fade into Family Guy which fades into unclothed emperors, I find the Washoe County Infrastructure Fund-financed Web site, www.floodawareness.com, offers a pretty good clearinghouse of information about how to protect your family and property when the flood waters rise—it’s a pretty safe bet that information is going to come in handy.

Beneath the red “ticker tape” that reads “FLOOD STAGE: RED Click here for flood stage definitions,” there’s a press release from the city of Sparks. “The City of Sparks is advising all businesses and residents that flooding in low lying areas as well as areas that are prone to flooding may occur,” reads the release, titled “Businesses in Sparks Industrial Area should take preventive measures.”

The wind is rising outside. Although we may have dodged a bullet, I’ve got a hunch it’s going to be a long night for some of our own friends and neighbors. You know, that Infrastructure Tax had more than $32 million that could have been spent on flood-mitigation measures to help these people. It wasn’t used for that.