解放军文职招聘考试洪水影响美国中西部（1/2）

 On his land outside Peoria, Darrel Kammeyer is keeping one eye on the rising Illinois River and another on the only thing standing between it and his farmland, a seven-meter-tall levee. ''It was constructed to hold back the Illinois River so this ground would not become a flood plain.'' As the water level rises, Kammeyer patrols the levee in an all-terrain vehicle. With the river now just half a meter below the top of the levee, Kammeyer says his biggest concern is not what could spill over, but what could slip underneath. ''Right now we have to watch about the levee getting saturated and water trying to seep underneath of it. So we watch for spots that might be a potential problem.'' Kammeyer knows if a significant amount of water breaches the levee, that would prevent him from planting his fields. Kammeyer has so far been able to avoid the Illinois River's wrath. But Peoria was not as fortunate. Parts of the downtown area were under several meters of water, and that also played out in other towns along the river as the floodwaters slowly made their way downstream.

在他位于皮奥里亚以外的田里，戴劳•卡米埃尔正一边密切关注伊利诺伊河上涨的水位，同时密切关注着另一个唯一横亘在他的农田和伊利诺伊河之间的东西——一座七米高的防洪堤。“当初建它是为了应对伊利诺伊河的暴涨，使这片土地不至变成洪泛区。”随着水位上涨，卡米埃尔开着一辆全地形车在堤坝四处巡逻。由于现在水位距坝顶仅有半米之遥，卡米埃尔说他最大的担忧不是河水的溢出泛滥，而是堤坝发生塌陷和滑动破坏。“目前我们必须监察堤坝的渗透情况以及可能下渗的河水。因此我们警惕一切可能成为潜在问题的地方。”卡米埃尔知道一旦大量的河水冲出堤坝势必妨碍他种地。卡米埃尔到目前为止都成功避开了伊利诺伊河水泛滥的侵害。但皮奥里亚就没他这么幸运了。市中心部分地区已经浸泡于数米水下，并且随着洪水缓慢地顺流而下，洪涝也波及到了沿岸的其它城镇。