Flash Floods

It is not unusual for us to hear that there are flash flood warnings during sustained thunderstorms, but we have never been at risk so unless we are on the road, we shrug them off.  Yesterday, the warnings came as blasting alerts through our phones, and again we didn't think much of it.  It had been raining for a while, and then it really started coming down in buckets.  We looked out the front of our house and were flabbergasted at what we saw.  The road was filled with water and it was quite deep.  Our house is higher than the road, but at one point it as we watched it creeping up the driveway I felt a stab of anxiety.  

It was trash day and pick-up day for recyclables.  Fortunately, the trash people had already been by, but the recyclables were still in their bins and with the road flooding, they were floating away from a number of houses, emptying their contents.  As the area in front of our house is the lowest point and has all the storm drains, eventually, many of those plastic and glass bottles found their way here.  In a short period of time, the rain lightened and the overwhelmed storm drains began doing their jobs.  Many of those recyclables went down the drain before it was safe for us to go out and clean up.  We are fine. Our home is fine, our cars are garaged so were unaffected.  I don't believe we were ever at risk, but it has given me new respect for "flash flood warnings." We have lived in our house for 35 years and have never had this happen before.

Many drivers were caught in flash floods, having to seek refuge on the top of their car.  A number of sinkholes opened up in the area too.    The national weather service reported later that we received one month's worth of rain in1 hour. (about 4 inches).

I am loading a photo taken by our neighbor who lives at the closed end of our cul-de-sac and up a hill.  Our house is the last one on the right. You will get the idea.  

I apologize to those of you who have already seen and heard about this on Facebook.