Lake Ontario Overflows its Banks. Massive Flooding

[TrueTomHarley]

There must be a scripture somewhere insulting the sea. If there is not, there should be. Rochester, my home town, is not on the sea and has no beef with it, but it sure does with the lake.

Lake Ontario is a mini-sea in its own right. Along with the four other Great Lakes, it constitutes one fifth of the earth’s fresh water supply. People have built homes on the shores of the lake, figuring that where the lake is, the lake is. Why would you not? But this year, the lake level is two feet higher than normal. Imagine! The entire lake! Let some math nerd figure out the volume increase – it shouldn’t be hard. Actually, the idea appeals to me, except I’m lazy. Give it to some kid for homework or let him bring it to class for extra credit.

When a boat sails by, those people on the shore sweat. They do so even more some when a wind kicks up. Even in calm times, the water is lapping up against their foundations. Their beach as disappeared and their decks are submerged. The beach about which I wrote “Horses in Water’ no longer exists.

http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2006/09/horses_in_water.html

The government is passing out sandbags and sand to fill them with. Volunteers appear to help the beach dwellers out. My experience is that sandbags are okay for a day or two or modest rise, but not for much else. The lake level is supposed to be high – it is still rising – all season.

Why don’t they drain the lake? someone asks. Just open up the St. Lawrence river more and let that stuff drain out to the sea. Unfortunately, people live along the river, too. An entire city is there, Montreal Canada, and they are seriously flooded as it is. To drain 1 inch of water from Lake Ontario will result in a rise of 10 inches for Montreal and other river dwellers. “Go for it, anyway!” say the besieged lakeshore dwellers, but Canada says ‘no.’

They’re funny that way.

[JW Insider]

I blame it on Lake Erie.

Saw this over at http://www.newyorkupstate.com/western-ny/2017/05/what_is_the_international_joint_commission_doing_about_lake_ontarios_flooding.html

Also, briefly talk about the flooding around Montreal - did that hold up water releases, say in late March or early April that otherwise would have taken place?

Lake Ontario outflows have generally been higher since the beginning of April, but were reduced below 7,000 cubic meters per second for four days in April and five days in May. This occurred when extremely high flows in the Ottawa River caused significant flooding in the Montreal area. The Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence River at Lake St. Louis in the Montreal area. The Ottawa River basin is larger than the Lake Ontario basin and it received 150 percent rainfall above-average in April. An outflow of 820 cubic meters per second for one week from Lake Ontario will remove one inch of water from the lake, but will also raise the level of Lake St. Louis by 11 inches for the entire week. Reducing the Lake Ontario outflow for a few days while the Ottawa River flows are peaking can prevent several feet of flooding in the Montreal area.

I know this is a secular post, but since you wanted a sea curse, your best bet is Greek Poseidon-related mythology. The closest you get in Scripture is Job 3:8

 (Job 3:8) Let those who curse the day put a curse on it,
Those who are able to awaken Le·viʹa·than.

In Hebrew, the consonantal word YM has been understood here as YoM, for day, but based on Hebrew poetic parallelism could more likely have originally been YaM, which is sea. Therefore the call would have been:

 8 Let those who [can] curse the sea put a curse on it,
Those who are able to awaken Le·viʹa·than [either a crocodile-like sea-monster or a sea-monster-like crocodile]

Perhaps a prayer instead to the God who says of the boundary between land and sea:

(Job 38:11) And I said, ‘You may come this far, and no farther; Here is where your proud waves will stop’?

 

I understand the need to use as much of the land as possible, and I hate to see good soil eroded. But this current "sea level" (on the lake) is no worse than a record set back in the 1970's. So I never understand why people need to build so close to the shore.

 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

So I never understand why people need to build so close to the shore.

Neither do they (now).