Bailing Out

We got some rain this weekend.

Well, more than “some.” When I left for work this morning we’d measured over 8 inches at our house. So far we have faired well, we only got a little water in the basement when a window well filled up. Turned out out gutters were clogged. After I stood on a metal ladder in a lighting storm and cleaned them out, we were ok. I wish I could say the same for our neighbors. Further down the street several people had the sewer back up into their basements. The city put a huge trailer mounted pump on the street and started pumping the sewer into the storm sewer.

The first photo at the left is from down the street. Underwood creek basically has left folks with as much as four feet of water in their backyards. Here is some video I shot with my cell phone (narrated by my 21mo son), followed by some more photos:

You’ll recognize these first two images from Project 365. Other than Saturday morning, the weather is about all I had time for this weekend. At the right is underwood creek as it flows across the street from our house. Normally it is maybe 5 feet across at this point. The sound when you stand on our front door step is like living near a waterfall as this shot is of the calm part, the rest are like mini class 3 rapids.

This is the foot bridge near the playground at Wirth Park, upstream from us. If I had to guess, normal level is about 4-5 feet less than this. I am thankful I’ve only had to deal with some minor puddles in the basement and having to drain water off of the pool twice. One neighbor down the street estimates he lost $100k worth of stuff when his basement filled with sewage.

So far, it sounds like everyone is safe, just wet.