I can't help but appreciate the irony...

as pretty much everyone in north america has likely heard by now, a good chunk of western washington has been underwater for the past week or so. it's so bad that a twenty mile stretch of interstate-5 (the main thoroughfare between the canadian and mexican borders along the west coast) is closed south of olympia. this is really the ONLY way to get between seattle and portland, short of a 300 mile detour through eastern washington. it's some serious shit.

this stretch of highway is used by tens of thousands of vehicles each day, and I think I read somewhere that it's costing the local economy four million dollars a day in lost revenues, to say nothing of all of the damage to homes, buildings and infrastructure...

the good news is, they're getting close to re-opening the freeway. the flooding is down to four feet (it crested around twenty feet!) and they hope to have it opened up again by tomorrow. the governor (christine gregoire) has been onhand to oversee the repairs and all that poop, but has been hesitant to dip into the budget surplus to cover the repairs. I saw this in a seattle-pi article and had to chuckle...

At the briefing, Gregoire said she hopes to do any needed work without touching the state's rainy day fund, which currently holds about $450 million.

"I'd like to keep the rainy day fund there and intact," she said.

if this isn't the very definition of need for a RAINY DAY FUND, I don't know what the hell is...