Hey BCB, your britches wet?

[georgeld]

Hal:

How deeps the water down there??

Hope not flooded too bad.

[Bayou City Boy]

All is well at my house, George. Unfortunately not everyone can say that, especially the folks out toward Beaumont where one little town had a reported 43" of rain in less than a day. Places in Houston took on water also, but the heaviest rains were east of here.

Life goes on.......... Thanks for asking, George.

-BCB

[DAA]

43" in a day...

This desert dweller can't even get his head wrapped around that. That's more than twice what we normally get in a year.

- DAA

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by DAA

43" in a day...

This desert dweller can't even get his head wrapped around that. That's more than twice what we normally get in a year.

- DAA

Truth be told, Dave, 43" in a single storm is hard for anyone to wrap their head around.

Since 2001, Houston and the surrounding area has had three major rain events with Allison, Harvey, and now Imelda. None of these three involved much wind but more than a lot of rain. Some people have been quoted as saying that Imelda hit their particular location/s with more water than Harvey dumped on them. I don't doubt that when the news media is reporting 40+ inches in some locations.

The national news reports typically show flooding along freeway feeder roads and at overpass area on the major freeways. If people would be patient, much of the damage that occurs to autos could easily be avoided. With the flooding from storms like Imelda, once the rains subside, the bayou system takes over and most flooding is totally gone in a few hours. The biggest problem that occurs is that most commuters seem to believe that water on the roads is not a problem as they assume that their Honda Accord with the windshield wipers running becomes an armored half track that can ford water.

Many of the people who get their homes flooded regularly just accept it as a part of life that goes with their desire to live along waterways in low lying areas. Its a life choice that is even hard for me to grasp. We've been in Houston since 1989 and we have lived in areas out of major flood plains but I've always sprung yearly for flood insurance, "just in case". At $450 per year its a cheap investment. In a flood plain area its required if you have a mortgage on your home.

The good part, if there is a "good part" when these events happen, is that people chip in to help each other down here, and those affected will recover. Some will buy flood insurance from their experience and others will simply choose to take the chance that it won't happen to them again.

Where we live now didn't get that much rain from Imelda, but the area where we lived for 28 years and moved from last November had major rain fall. The house that we moved from once again did not flood. You tend to curse steep driveways where you live in "dry moments" but in events like these when the streets are under significant water, a steep drive way is a blessing. Where we live now is probably 12+ feet above street level at our front door. The next event might dumps volumes on us, but I feel good about the elevation of the house versus street level.....and having flood insurance just in case. Two of our children live in the Houston metro area and they too have steep driveways.

As I said earlier, life goes on for everyone.........

-BCB

[georgeld]

Good to hear such news.
Cousin said her son and family in the SE corner of Houston were dry too.

I don't understand why Sam's boys would let anyone build anything not on floats in a flood prone area in the first place. IF I ran an insurance company I sure wouldn't insure such places either.

I'm in a river channel here. Fountain River floods at least every five years.
The valley I'd guess is over a mile wide and up here on the hillside I'm at I'd guess at 50-100 feet above the crik bed.

So far, it's never gotten up here. Rains at times do get heavy enough the side streets are rivers a foot deep and roaring as there's enough slope.
The smart one's bought up most of three blocks of houses ten years or so ago.
Tore 'em down and dug about 10-12 foot deep catch basin's it gets so bad. A few times after a major rain I've driven down there to take a look. Usually after a lot of the water has drained out thru the culverts under I-25 into the Fountain. Never have been down in them, but, I'd bet water has been 6-8 feet deep in all three. Each one is about 100 feet across and 200 feet long fairly easy. Just guessing of course. That's a whole lot of water regardless of where. Funny thing, up here at my place the water table is 9'. Being that much lower and the ponds that deep I'm baffled why they're dry except in rains. The higher up, the shallower the water table it seems here.

This hillside might cover 3/4 mile, by possibly a mile area these grassy park pond basins catch.

We have plenty of those same type idjits that will drive into flooded underpasses. Then panic and get out of their floating cars and have to be "Rescued" by folks brave and caring enough to swim them out of it.

Here, when we get a 2" an hour rain it's one hell of a storm. Twice now in 44 years at this place. We've had 4" rain in just about an hour. The parkway and streets filled up under water before it drained to the catch basins. Around 25 years ago, bil and I were inside a store along the west side of the parkway and saw it. Kroger's big store had the roof cave in. Seems like the Fountain had some over 120,000 c/sft flow. Most times it's about 200c/sft.

On the long haul across the deserts of AZ, I've been in dumping's where rain was 8" deep in the middle of the interstate. It don't take long to fill things up as far as you can see. Same goes at the salt lake desert. It takes a whole lotta rain water to fill such large areas enough to make lakes.

In the summer of '65 I worked on a highway painting crew from top of Raton Pass to the Wyo line except right in Denver. We finished the area at Castle Rock on a Thursday and were going to move to S. Denver Tuesday. Saturday it rained up north and Denver areas til it got way out of hand.

Plum Creek that's normally barely enough you'd get feet wet walking across it. Ten miles S of Castle Rock the valley narrows down to about 3/8mi across. underpass there has a 17' clearance. There was debris halfway up the railings over that. I'm guessing 22-24' deep at that point.

The old US hwy 85/87 we'd just painted was a two lane road made of slabs of concrete. That washed up til the slabs were stacked up much like a box of saltine crackers would look like. Amazing the power of water and nature. The new 4 lane divided I-25 was being built closer to the creek. I heard from the contractor they'd never recovered a couple big Cat scrapers and some dozer's that had sunk in the sandy creek bed. I'm not aware of any buildings being washed away, but, really don't know for sure. I'd bet quite a few had water in them.

We lost a few barrels of paint and beads but no damage much when the water washed thru the yard. Couple weeks later once the hwy was cleared we went ahead and moved north as planned and went back to painting the highway.