It rained a lot this week. A LOT. It rained very hard Tuesday night and kept us awake - a metal roof is nice but when it's torrents of water coming down it can be pretty noisy. The video above is from Tuesday afternoon on a nearby street. Our soil has a lot of caliche, which is clay-like material, in it. When it is hot and dry (our normal summers) the clay dries up and shrinks up and this jiggles the underground pipes into awkward positions. When the rain comes and washes away chunks of the clay, the pipes sometimes break and the result can be ... Old Faithful!
Or worse. Sewage is flowing into some of our creeks because one lift station was hit by lightning and another one was flooded out. Times like this sort of force you to be a little more humble about your ability, or lack thereof, to control your environment. Weather happens.
We had about 9-10" of rain in our neighborhood, some areas got nearly 15". One of our neighborhood access roads will be shut for a few days until they clear out a 600-lb boulder from a slide area, it hit a car but fortunately the airbags in the car prevented serious injury. This happened about an hour after both Susan and I drove down the road.
The biggest problem with all this sudden rain is that we have very quick, heavy flash flooding over a lot of roads. TexDOT (Texas Dept of Transportation) employees work hard and fast to put up "High Water - Do Not Cross" signs and block off problematic roads.
The Caution slogan everyone is taught is "Turn Around, Don't Drown". Unfortunately, we've had at least one death already, from a woman who DROVE AROUND the barricades and past the flashing police cruiser. Inexcusable and thus twice as tragic.
Rescue crews have been working hard, searching for people whose cars were washed away, pulling people out of flooded homes and moving people out by helicopter.
This week-end the temperature projection is high 90's with humidity in the 90's, but little chance of rain. Say a blessing for the people who invented air conditioners.
3 comments:
I remember well, in Texas, it never rains, it just pours! Be safe.
I realize it is hard on the loved ones of those that foolishly drive into known areas where the water is high, BUT I have a hard time feeling sorry for them. It is part of the Darwin Theory.
We had a bunch here up in N TX too-and the idiots that drive around those barricades-no brains. Caliche. yuk. lived in the country w/that as a road once.
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