Safe, Dry, Lucky to Be So

Heavy rains and localized flooding put our area in the national news yesterday. We were under a tornado warning (warning, not watch) until early afternoon and under a watch for the rest of the day, but it was high water that did the most damage. One employee of a local business apparently slipped or was swept off his feet by swiftly moving high water in the company's parking lot as he attempted to get into his truck. His drowned body was discovered later in the day, wedged under his truck.

Kim and I stayed home, not even venturing out to the nearest grocery store, though we were overdue to go food shopping. Instead, we dined on popcorn, peanut butter and crackers, microwavable Rice-a-Roni and spaghetti and eggs. Not healthy, but it didn't kill us.

We live on a little hill, so I never worry about the house flooding, but I do have some concern about becoming stuck here when so many nearby roads become impassable. That's a real possibility.

It stormed for hours and hours:

The water standing at lower left is the end

of my driveway--at the bottom of the hill.

This is Gimpy looking out the front door

at water pouring into the carport.

Here's another picture of water standing in the carport.

Believe it or not, this is the driest side of the backyard.

(The dark spot near bottom center is a recently dug dog hole.)

This shows the road-facing side of our garden shed

and a portion of the neighbor's backyard. The part 

of the yard that holds the most water is on the opposite

side of the garden shed. Back there it often looks like a

fishable lake after even a brief rainstorm. I wanted

to take a picture of it yesterday, but frequent lightning

bolts warned me to keep my behind in the house. So I did.

If this much water stands at the top of a hill, can you imagine what that amount of rain does to low-lying areas? This morning's dry weather won't last. The water in our yard has receded, but the ground is still soggy and another heavy storm is due any minute.

On a side note, I think Oliver may have set a new record yesterday for how long one little dog can "hold it" when he's determined not to get wet. I'd give almost anything to have such an amazing bladder capacity.