Where'd that guard rail go?

I went down to the riverfront this morning and found a level of 35.1 feet on the Memphis gauge--five feet higher than what it was on Thursday when I last went down there.  I had to park my car higher up the hill today:

Here's the view from that same spot on the marina pier:

The National Weather Service continues to revise its forecast downward.  The latest I've heard is that they're predicting a crest of 41 feet (a foot lower than before) on January 8 (a day sooner than before).  As fun as it is to take these pictures of high water, I consider that good news.  Hopefully we can get by with just a small fraction of the damage the Saint Louis area experienced.  I also hope we can avoid the national media circus that we saw during the big flood of 2011, when the river rose to 48.03 feet on the Memphis gauge.

The yellow building in the second photo is the Maria Montessori School, and it was the site of one of the more absurd moments on the national news in 2011.  The little amphitheater that you can see at the right side of the photo was completely under water, and an NBC reporter decided to don chest waders and appear on camera while standing on a step of the amphitheater with water up to his chest.  The resulting footage earned the derision of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show: "The water is NIPPLE HIGH, ladies and gentlemen!"

On a more important note, I had a good paddle in absolutely gorgeous weather.  The sun shone, and the Fahrenheit temperature was in the mid to high 40s with only a light breeze... an ideal January day.  I paddled for 80 minutes, going out onto the river and up the inundated Greenbelt Park.  I paddled a pretty strong pace with several long surges.  As I paddled back to the dock I ran into my friend Joe on his way out, and I was glad not to be the only one enjoying this lovely paddling weather.