Detour

Leaves clog the gutters.
Rain fills the streets.
The East Village Road is flooded.
In a deluge, I block the street.

One by one, 
cars approach my barricade
and ask if the can pass.

The road's flooded.
The water's three feet deep.
If your can float, feel free.

One by one, 
the cars turn away
and the drivers thank me.

Comments

[Jade]

That reminds me of the road that runs by the DQ you used to work at (I *think* you used to work at that one) before they re-routed it. Shortly after I got my license I took that route to school & the road was flooded over at the bottom. I was going to try to drive through it in my Rabbit, then I saw a much larger truck attempt it and I saw exactly how deep it was, so I backtracked to the freeway.

[DP]

That sort of thing always bothered me a bit when I was directing traffic around an accident or fire scene, and in one case a very large sink hole. I always wanted to answer; "No, I had nothing better to do so I just thought I'd block the street."
Since I was a volunteer, occasionally somebody would blow by me anyway. The nice Sargent at the scene usually explained matters better than I could have.

[RD]

@JADE,

I did work at that DQ.
What you describe is what happened.

@DP,

Thank you for commenting and welcome to the blog. My favorite statement by a motorist in this type of situation is, "But, I don't know any other way to go."

As a police officer, I still have people blow by me......

[Easily Lost]

To me, that would be an almost mind numbing job, waiting for someone to try to go down a road your blocking. How the heck do you stay awake?

[RD]

@EL,

It's not mind numbing. It's a well travelled road. Cars come by every twenty to thirty seconds. Fortunately, the road crews were able to unclog the drains and culverts in the area relatively quickly.

RD

[Peppypilotgirl]

I've had that happen to me (with icing, not with flooding) when I was new to an area and really didn't know any other way to go. The state trooper's directions "follow that line of cars" wasn't terribly helpful as the cars kept splitting off onto different side roads. I was lost for nearly 2 hours in an ice storm in a rural area I didn't know and no cell phone reception.

Happy Thanksgiving - you and those who do what you do are on my list of "thankful for", for sure.

[RD]

@PPG,

I'm still in the city, my directions are, "Turn right. Drive Four Blocks. Turn Left. Drive Six Blocks. You'll be where you want."

[deputydog]

How about a road blocked by fire engines, cones, police cars and "do not cross this line" tape, and people still try to drive through.
"is the road blocked?"