I've moved to Tennessee, as some readers know, and thought I'd left hurricane season behind in Louisiana: but this weekend demonstrated that Tennessee has some pretty wild weather of its own! We had torrential rain Saturday and Sunday, easily equivalent to what a minor hurricane would dump. The only blessing was that we didn't have the high winds to go with it. Here's a radar image from Weather Underground showing cumulative rainfall over last Saturday and Sunday.
As you can see, there are some big patches where 15+ inches were recorded; and the highest rainfall metered at one station was 26.6"! That's hurricane-quantity rain in anyone's book!
Today was fine and sunny, and things have begun to dry out in places. Other areas, unfortunately, are still experiencing rising water, as the downpour drains off into rivers, which continue to rise and inundate low-lying areas. Here are a few photographs taken during and after the rainstorm, showing its dramatic impact. They were e-mailed to me by friends, apart from one that I took myself.
It got real dark, real quick . . .
No, that's not a time-exposure, that's really how hard it was raining!
A lot of cars went slip-sliding away in torrents like this. Several people drowned.
A timely announcement?
Lots of houses like this one, flooded out and probably beyond economical repair.
Because many areas weren't in traditional flood plains, few owners had flood insurance.
Because many areas weren't in traditional flood plains, few owners had flood insurance.
As a friend commented on seeing this one: "No s***, Sherlock!"
At least the overflowing rivers brought the fish within easy catching reach!
Lots of roads like this one. Many motorists were stranded far from home,
and had to spend at least one night with friends or in emergency shelters.
and had to spend at least one night with friends or in emergency shelters.
Er . . . yep, you might say that!
Funny to see ducks sheltering from the rain beneath a gazebo - while swimming!
This is a mile or so from my home.
So is this.
The commuter trains won't be running for a while.
Waterfront homes, going cheap!
The damage is truly massive. I've no idea what the clean-up and repair costs will be, but they're bound to be in the multiple billions of dollars. The rivers are still in flood, many only cresting tonight, and they'll only start to drop tomorrow: so there are many areas where rescue workers and damage assessment crews can't even get access yet.
Miss D. is going to be heartsore, too: the Cornelia Fort airport, where she'd hoped to base her light aircraft, is completely under water, and all the planes on it (except one) are submerged. TV images are surreal: hangars submerged to their roofs; a Cessna 172 with only its wings and the tips of the tail and propeller above water; a Beechcraft showing only the latter, its low wings invisible beneath the muddy soup; a twin-engine aircraft (the exception mentioned above) that's been towed as far as possible up a rise, but not far enough. Water's swirling around its undercarriage and the base of its engines.
I suspect most of the aircraft based there are write-offs. I hope their insurance covers flood damage!
It's been a wild weekend. We'll see how the recovery goes.
Peter
8 comments:
We all wish you the very best Peter. I hope the recovery goes okay.
PeterT
A former co-worker's house is completely submerged. Being on a hill, we fared ok, but some folks a few roads over did not and got at least their basements or first floors flooded. I'll bet a lot of them did not have flood insurance; nobody expected a lot of those areas to ever flood. Will's workplace got ten inches of sewage. Luckily, his office is on the second floor. A lot of big trees came down on our road, topping over by their roots or snapping in half.
Most of those pictures are very reminiscent of last September in GA. We got a fair bit of serious flooding, too - much of it in areas never expected to flood, either.
Any place can flood. It just depends on how much rain you get. Here in San Antonio, TX in 1998 and again a couple of years later we had what they first called 100 year floods. The next ones a couple of years later they figured must be 500 year floods. I'd hate to see the 1000 year ones. We got about 30 inches of rain in 24 hours and it looked very much like the pictures you posted. At the time I was living about 1/4 mile from a "creek" that floods regularly. We were on flat farm land and it was raining so hard there was a good 4 inches of water just standing everywhere as it could not run off fast enough. Scary stuff indeed. I'll never build in a low lying area after that. Good luck to you.
You see that fence stopping that poor plane from being saved? Chalk one more loss up to "security"!
Oh, that poor citabria. And all the other planes. And the great guys there, including the businesses you see and the ones past that. And the dogs - hope they and the airport caretaker are okay...
So, I need a hilltop pasture in a farm, and a hangar on top of the hill, I guess...
Thanks for sharing your personal experience and views on this weather tragedy.
Typically we do not have mosoon season here in So. Central KY but you could have fooled me this weekend.
Enjoy your time in the Midsouth. As a Damnn Yankee I won't move back north.
My Son-in-law's brother and family lives just outside Nashville. We heard yesterday they were above the flood line, but have no water and are using a generator for power.
Peter, you may have escaped the worst of hurricanes but you're still in tornado country.
Where are you in TN if you don't mind saying?
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