http://www.pbase.com/britestar

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Going to the Park yesterday, I discovered that almost everything - including the 2 mile walking trail - was under water. The Missouri River had over flowed her banks by 12 feet and was rising. Nevertheless, a small section of the walking trail (slightly higher than most of the rest of the park) wasn't yet covered with water. So I ventured out with my camera.

And found this terrified Groundhog up a tree. I never knew before that groundhogs could climb like this. This one must have done it in sheer desperation. His home had been destroyed and flood water was rapidly rising all around him.

An hour later as I headed back to my car, I was forced to wade through 6 inches of rising flood waters that hadn't been there when I started my walk. By that point, the police had finally closed the park, and news crews were out in force.

Starting at midnight last, the small tourist town adjacent to the park officially "closed" with a mandatory evacuation. When I was leaving town, merchants were frantically loading up U-Hauls to evacuate as much as they could before the flood waters swallowed everything up.

I hope the groundhog survived.