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| 07-10-03: Worming their way in Rockford area residents
have more to deal with than floodwaters < and oh, the smell |
By SHELLEY GRIESHOP
The Daily Standard
ROCKFORD - They're floating in the flooded waters and left dangling on
rocks and bushes where water has receded. And the smell of the decomposing invertebrates
is everywhere in this water-soaked village.
They're worms.
"As if the water's not bad enough, now we have to get rid of these
things," said Rockford resident Pauline Steiner, as she stood in over three inches of
water where scores of slimy worms floated past her bare legs.
Steiner recently purchased a small water pump to rid her back yard at
301 State St. in Rockford of excess water, although the unwanted moisture really had no
place else to go, she admitted. Many of her neighbors had it worse and were evacuated as
water crept into their homes earlier in the week.
As she used her broom to push the water toward the pump, she tried to
guide the worms to a pile to her left.
"I'm afraid they're going to be around a lot longer than the
water," she said, as sweat dripped from the bridge of her nose.
The deluge of worms from the swollen St. Marys River - and their awful
stink < is just another obstacle residents of Rockford are dealing with as floodwaters
persist for the seventh day.
Water splashed up against Ruth Davis' ankles Wednesday as she trudged
through the sunken living room of her house, which she now jokingly refers to as
"lakefront property."
"Sunken is right," she said with a laugh. "It is better
now though than it was yesterday. Yesterday there were 41/2 inches of water in here and
51/2 inches in our patio."
Her once lush carpeting is now a squishy, deep green mush, and she
hopes the high flood insurance premiums she and her husband have paid through the years
pay off. |
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