I guess someday they might call this the Flood of '08 or something. The St. Louis area has three very temperamental rivers running through it: The Missouri and Mississippi, which everyone's heard of, plus the Meramec, which is less known, but probably more dangerous.

I guess we were due. I remember the Flood of 1993 very well. The last big one before that was 1982. I don't remember the '82 flood, but I didn't live in St. Louis then either.

The 1993 flood's big damage was further north, although south was also affected. 1982's damage was largely to the southwest.

Most of the talk right now is in the southwestern part of the St. Louis area: Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park, and Fenton.

Nobody's talking yet about River Des Peres flooding. That was when I really knew we were in trouble in 1993, because normally the River Des Peres is just a trickle. Some months, it would be possible to jump across it.

Unfortunately there's a chance of rain a couple of days this upcoming week, possibly as soon as Sunday. We don't really need that right now.

When I bought a house, I deliberately looked for something on a small hill, a safe distance from any of the rivers. Since we get one devastating flood in St. Louis per decade, I don't want to have anything to do with a floodplain.