Dental Diaries: Rain-megeddon -- or, an unexpected day off

Here in the Chicago area we had expected a large amount of rain on Thursday, but no one expected the downpours we actually experienced.

With more than two month's total of water, totaling 8 billion gallons, descending on the area in less than 12 hours, you can only imagine the impact on our infrastructure. Major highways had complete sections closed due to flooding. Folks who attempted to drive through the water were immersed in the depths of the rain runoff. Sink holes swallowed up cars. Subdivisions were turned into lakes. The rain was relentless.

Several of our patients called the night before to say they were concerned with the amount of rain we were expecting and requested a change of appointment. Our first patient happened to work for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), so he was obviously busy. Others we called to say don't bother trying to navigate the streets.

After the rain began, I tried to drive to the office but encountered rivers of water. The levels were too high to attempt to drive through, although people were. I called my assistant, who said, "I am trying to get to the office," but I told her to turn around and head back home. Once I saw the weather conditions, I determined it wasn't worth the risk of driving in the torrential rains. As is our protocol, we had patients' cellphone numbers to send text alerts on both the driving conditions and the closure of the office.

Once the rain finally stopped, I went to the office to check on my IDOT patient, whose office is located across from mine. He had barely made it in, and it took him three hours. Not a pretty sight. He was happy that I rescheduled him to next Thursday.

The good news is all our patients were able to be rescheduled, and none of them were caught on a flooded street or roadway. Once in the office, I had some quiet time to catch up on correspondence and clean up some of those "to do" things that always get relegated to "the next time I have time." Yes, we did lose a day of production, but all the patients were happy not to have to negotiate the roads. Luckily, we had no emergencies.

Late in the day, the water began to recede, and I could almost see the grass in my backyard, which was a lake earlier in the day. On a positive note, we had some very nice visitors to our street, due to the newly formed river in the front: a pair of mallard ducks who seemed to be unfazed by the crazy weather that caused an unexpected day off for the rest of us.

The Chicago area experienced such heavy rains on April 18 that one county declared a state of emergency. These mallards, however, enjoyed the end result. Image courtesy of Dr. Sheri Doniger.