Torrential Rains

 I forgot to post about the torrential downpours we had earlier this week. Right around dinner time on Monday it rained so hard and so quickly that water accumulated in a flash. It was alarming to see flooding occur so fast. I heard reports that in some places four inches of rain fell within thirty minutes.

The flume I built was overwhelmed by too much water flowing down the hill. A normal rain would have caused a light flow of water but this was a gushing stream. The bricks did help prevent erosion of the soil so that was something positive. Some water still backed up to the house and into our basement. Steve kept up with the flow by using the Shop Vac. 

In the midst of all that downpour, I had to drive Chelsea to the airport. Tess went ahead of us down the road. We slowly rolled through high water and carefully avoided washed out gravel and fallen branches and debris. We came upon one small incline in the road that was rushing down with water such that it looked like a waterfall! Tess thought it was too dangerous to traverse. When we saw her turning round, we did the same. We took another back road to cut across to the highway. We saw fields turned into lakes. The hills were sending water into ravines that ran like rushing streams. Emergency vehicles passed us heading north, toward Eagle Rock. The whole scene felt apocalyptic. We could only think of our West Virginia and North Carolina neighbors and what they endured last year. I never saw so much water rise up in such a short span of time. I always thought we were safe in the mountains and on high ground from flooding. But, all the hills, hollows, streams, and ravines serve as channels for heavy rainfall. The water rushes down, carrying everything with it.

Eerily, as we left our county and headed into Roanoke, not a drop of rain had fallen. The roads were dry and flights were on time. I drove back home in a light rain. The washed out gullies left a lot of debris in the road but the flooded areas had receded. I was glad it was still light outside for my drive. 

The forecast shows chanced of storms again on Thursday. Steve and I will need to get outside and work  more on the grading near the back corner of the house to better channel water away. Aside from keeping the house dry, there is really no way to prepare for such flooding. It comes too quickly and the roads became impassable so fast that one cannot safely drive to get away from it.

Our road quickly turned into a fast flowing creek.

This is where we decided to turn around and find another route.