Save the women and kitty-boys first!

[cactuswatcher]

In my part of town there is usually rain in September, but since midnight the whole city has had more than its share. More than 2 inches most places. It's the most rain officially in Phoenix in 24 hours in 80 or 90 years. They are asking people to stay off the roads for a while because of flash flooding. Both of the interstate highways through town are closed in places. From the radar it looks like the worst may be over in an hour or so, but only after another round of heavy rain.

My house is fine. The street out front is running with water, but no worse than any heavy rain. I did much of the landscaping in my backyard to keep rain water from turning it into a lake. In today's extreme case, it looks like my efforts were well worth it. The first few years I lived here water would get deep enough to get up on the patio, but there isn't any pooling there today.

The morning weather guy on the TV station I'm watching got forced off the highway by flooding and the surface street he was on was so deep that his car stalled. Where my sister used to live, any heavy rain would put four inches of water in the main east-west street nearby. It was probably worse this morning.

ETA: I had an emergency house repair to make yesterday evening. It was tricky enough that I almost put it off till this morning. This morning I'm not sure I could make it to the hardware store (at least for a few hours yet) to get the parts I needed. Glad I got it done last night.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Scary! I remember seeing culverts when I was out there and being amazed that they could expect so much water. Now I see that it's worse than that. Hope everyone gets through it OK. Lucky you can make your own repairs and have the foresight to prepare!

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Our rains tend to be quick and heavy, which means the water piles up fast, then the sun comes out and evaporates it all before it sinks too far into the ground. I saw several "lakes" in low, grassy areas on my way to work this morning. They are there for a reason.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

You mean they are created to hold water?

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

They are created to be green areas/lawns, but shaped to hold water if need be. Not all are grassy, of course, some are sandy or what have you, but a lot of neighborhoods have them.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Good idea. In our area, there's lots of rain (except when there's not), and businesses are required to build run-off ponds, really deep ones.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

They have dug out the nearest natural stream beds (dry rivers) that run across the west side of town where I live for flood control. They are maybe fifty or sixty feet deep and a quarter mile wide now . Flash flooding is still a big problem, but the widespread flooding that used to occur decades ago is no more in this neighborhood. There are still places on the east side of Phoenix where the roads run down into the usually dry washes. There would have been no way to get through on those early this morning.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

The worst flooding I encountered on my way to work was right off my driveway. The rest was passable. But who knows what it will be like on the way home?

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Looks like from the radar that the last of the rain is still lingering over your area. It stopped about an hour ago over here. Lots of rain still left in Southern AZ moving NE toward Casa Grande and Tucson. Right now it looks fine for us this afternoon. Cross your fingers that storms don't reform before you get home.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I am headed to the dentist at 1:00 PM and then home from there (half day). Dentist is close to home, so hopefully there will be... less issues?