An essay in pictures.
The storm approaches. It’s much darker than it seems in the picture. This was about 9:00 and all the street lights came on.
A little while later, the sky fell.
It took about 20 minutes for the channel to fill. The white froth is air being pushed out of the storm sewer. The inlets in the parking lot were also spewing water and air. One of the branches of the tree on the left was pushed down by the weight of the water far enough to touch the power lines. It caught fire. Good thing there was enough rain to put it out!
Shortly after this, the street flooded enough to start collecting cars. Before it was done, there were at least five drowned cars between the intersection and our parking lot.
Speaking of parking lots, this is what it looks like when inlets become fountains. There’s a bit of an optical illusion here. That big parking lot is the upper deck of a two-story garage.
What does the lower deck look like? I’m glad you asked!
It’s a pond! What you’re seeing there is the bed of an extended cab, F-150 STX. What you can’t see is the Honda right next to it and the Tundra a few spaces to the left. As the water rose, the Tundra decided to say goodbye by putting on a little light show.
I stopped by to pay my respects before I left for the day.
It was surprising how fast the water came up. A stream gage not far from the office recorded the event for posterity.
We’re expecting more rain tonight, so I’m not certain I’ll be able to go home tomorrow. Parts of I-10 between Houston and Baton Rouge were shut down today from flooding. I guess we’ll see in the morning!
