One heck of a rainstorm

[Dinghy]

We are getting pounded with rain today. Right now it's pouring so hard my backyard is flooded. My pepper plants look like they're getting knocked over ! I'm going to cry if this ruins the garden. It's been doing so good lately. I really dread seeing what the cellar looks like! I sat out 3 picnic coolers as an experiment in rain containment today. All three are over-flowing, and one has only been out about an hour. I bought a garbage can to use as a rain barrel a couple days ago, but we haven't gotten it hooked up yet. I'm sure it would have over-flowed already too. I just took the lid off to see how much it will catch just sitting open in the yard. I haven't seen this much rain in years. I just heard on the scanner that there is a water main break at the cemetary!
I just put a Rubbermaid tote out on the deck. It's already got 2 inches in it and I'm soaked from walking two feet out the door. This is just awful! I wouldn't be surprised it our river goes over the banks. It hasn't done that in about 8 years. Thank God we live on a hill.
My son and grandaughter went to Lake Erie over night. He called a little bit ago and said they haven't been able to keep driving home. The roads are terrible. There are spots where the roads are flooded over and he can't see anything. He's only about 20 miles away and had to pull over again. I told him to take his time and wait it out if he thinks it's best. No sense taking any risks.
Hope everbody stays safe!!!

 

[Tadpole]

Yikes, Dinghy! Hope it is over soon.

Stay safe and do keep us posted.

 

[Dinghy]

Hi Tadpole,
It seems to have stopped, at least for now. The flood warning is till midnight, so there is an hour left. My son got home about an hour ago. He stopped to help somebody who slid off the road. He couldn't get him out of the ditch, so he called the cops on the cell phone and they called a tow truck. He said people's yards look like ponds. He didn't get a look at the river though. I'm not going in the cellar until tomorrow! Nothing will get ruined if it's wet, it will just be damp and smelly. I turned the dehumidifier up this morning so hopefully it will dry fast.
I can use all the water I caught to fill my grandaughter's pool tomorrow. One bucket at a time. Oh joy!!!!
Well I'm going to get out of these wet clothes and call it a night. Have a good night!

 

[Tadpole]

Dinghy, I heard from one of my girlfriends today. Her son, daughter-in-law and grandkids were involved in a very bad accident in that weather. The little girl is in the hospital now in pretty bad shape, still throwing up blood and bile.

It really brings weather news home when you know someone who was hurt by it.

Hope you and yours are still okay.

 

[Dinghy]

That's really awful Tadpole. I hope the little one is doing better. It always seems so much worse when a little kid gets hurt. I didn't hear of any real accidents around here because of the storm. Our paper didn't really have much in it at all about it. It said we got 3.89 inches of rain and the river was starting to flood at 1:00 a.m. Luckily the storm was over by then.
I really hate having people out on the roads. I've had so many firiends killed over the years and my brother a few years ago, that I'm really paranoid about it. My son drives 30 miles each way to work and in the winter I'm a basket case till I know he's home at night.
Luckily our weather has been pretty mild except for a few storms in the winter. We had a downpour again tonight but it only lasted about 10 minutes. We used to get bad electrical storms in the spring but we haven't had any for at least a few years. The weather seems to be changing lately.
Let me know how the little girl is doing. I'll be praying for her.

 

[pkchicken]

We just came off of 3 weeks without a good rain so this soaking is a God send for us. However, many towns in New Jersey are in a state of emergency with folks stuck out of their homes.

Hope it levels out soon.

pk

 

[Dinghy]

People in the next town had water so deep in their basements that it was up to their circuit breaker boxes! Our paper showed a picture of a woman swimming in the street. What a fool!!! A guy at work lives there and he told my husband that pieces of concrete and garbage were floating through his yard. I can't imagine being stupid enought to swim in it!!!
I saved as much water as I could in our picnic coolers. I'll use it to water the garden later. We usually have pretty dry summers, but the last two have been a lot wetter. This year we decided to try a rain containment barrel, but haven't gotten it set up yet. I bought a garbage can to use, and if I dumped all the coolers into it I'm sure it would over flow. I had never thought about how much water was wasted. I've always had a few buckets sitting out to catch the rain, but they don't usually get much. I was shocked to see how much was coming off the roof last night. I ran out of things to use to catch it in. I wish I had some kind of cistern or something to really save it!