Iced In
By fishtiger58
@fishtiger58 (29819)
Momence, Illinois
March 5, 2016 7:28am CST
I just found this photo of my house. Yesterday I posted about my old house and the wavy windows. My house is right in the middle of this shot. I live along the Kankakee River and this particular year 2010 when I shot this photo the river had frozen up solidly. It doesn't happen every year, and this was a bad freeze up. I am standing on the opposite side of the river taking this shot of my house. My house is a two story and the barn is right behind the house.
That spring as the river thawed the build up of huge chunks of ice at the couple of bridges in the area threatened the integrity of those bridges. A solution had to be found before the bridges were damaged or all together broken apart. Volunteers along with firemen worked for days breaking up the ice before it reached the bridges. I went to the biggest of the two bridges during that time and some of the ice chunks were as big as cars. Finally after 3 days of breaking up the ice the bridges were safe. It was amazing to say the least.
9 people like this
11 responses
@Marilynda1225 (91013)
• United States
6 Mar 16
@fishtiger58 we were lucky this winter with warmer temperatures I think? seems as if we had cold spurts and not long periods of below freezing.
2 people like this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
@Marilynda1225 And from what I can remember we only had one really cold cold snap. And I was on the west coast during that time so I was happy to miss it.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
5 Mar 16
The river had some ice this year but it was all free flowing so it wasn't a threat to the bridges. Most of the ice this year came and went quickly.
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
6 Mar 16
nice photo.... I know ice and snow are dangerous... but they do make everywhere look pretty... 
1 person likes this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
7 Mar 16
@fishtiger58. Those temperatures sounds more spring like..
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
8 Mar 16
@sueznewz2 Yes 66 degrees here today. I am so excited going on a long bike ride today.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
It's very pretty until the snow gets dirty, then not so much. Thankfully it's gone here again and this whole weeks it's supposed to be in the 50's and 60's I like that.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
8 Mar 16
Thanks I love my big old house. Will never sell it.
@Marilynda1225 (91013)
• United States
6 Mar 16
Thankfully it all worked out and the bridges didn't get damaged. I thought you were going to say with the spring thaw everything got flooded. Great picture and it must be beautiful living so close to the river.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
It they hadn't broken up that ice it would have flooded worse than it did. It was a bad flood for the low side of the river that year as well.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
Me too or I would have had to drive a long way to get across the river, which is where most of my town lies.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
5 Mar 16
It was something to see for sure. I know I have some pictures of the big chunks of ice somewhere.
@Shellyann36 (11383)
• United States
5 Mar 16
Awesome photo but the thoughts of ice that large is scary. How did they break up the ice? Did they try to get out in boats or what? Now I am very curious.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
I'm not sure how they broke up the ice, they wouldn't let anyone on the bridges to watch, I guess to dangerous. I was on the one bridge where the ice chunks were as big as cars before they started to chop it up. Wish I could have seen how they did it.
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
7 Mar 16
Those chunks were so big and they were building up against the bridges and the ice would have taken down those bridges if they hadn't of done something about it.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
5 Mar 16
I am too or our taxes would have gone up to build those bridges back.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
5 Mar 16
I am cold just looking at that photo. Being from Southern California, I cannot imagine that being daily life. Brrrrrr............
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29819)
• Momence, Illinois
5 Mar 16
Some days I'm not happy it's daily life, but the promise of spring is getting stronger here.
