2022, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Flash Flood

52 Comments

We had around 2 inches of rain on Sunday night in the space of 70 minutes. That is pretty unusual for us, and resulted in a lot of flash flooding in town. The photo below shows a flooded underpass. You can see the railroad bridge at the top of the photo. The street goes under the bridge, and the flood waters are about 12 feet deep.

Photo by DJ Miller

The following photo is of a main street in town that I drive on every day to work. I never really noticed the low spot where the yellow car is sitting. There are apparently lots of these low spots on the street, and they all flooded briefly. I have lived here for 35 years and I never noticed them. Now I notice lots of these low spots all over town.

Photo by DJ Miller

Someone from the fire department also took a photo of the underpass. The fire department is always called when the underpass floods, as it seems someone tries to drive through the underpass during a flood, and they like to have a rescue truck available.

Photo by Dickinson Fire Department

We had another .20 inches today, and it seemed like it soaked in much better than the downpour on Sunday night. It is interesting how less can be more when it comes to rain.

Have you ever been in a flood, flash or otherwise? When, in your experience, is less really more? What are some experiences when you have seen but not really noticed ?

52 thoughts on “Flash Flood”

  1. Education: we hand teachers fat textbooks and say cover all this in nine months. Over the years, which took me too long to learn, the less I taught the more I taught. And we keep adding things for teachers to teach. We have forgotten that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
    Money: My opposite grandfather is 84 and sits on over 2 million dollars. He has kids in college or about to ge there but he gives no help. He has a couple children who could have used some help along the way but did not. I don’t have much money and have a modest income but I help out my kids and my grandkids. I have seen this repeated many times, too much money leads to Scrooge.

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  2. If you really want to notice things, start painting or drawing.
    Never been in a flood or tornado or much of any sort of physical diasaster. Emotional disaster is my baliwick.

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  3. I remember flooding somewhat like this when I was in high school, had my best friend in the car (the Tan Bomb – 1950 Plymouth) I was allowed to drive. Low spot by the river, and we decided to gun it, just barely got through with the car still running.

    I’ve seen the damage right after flooding out where my folks were vacationing outside of Estes Park, CO. Narrow Big Thompson Canyon, and it really was devastated at the time, but by now has recovered.

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  4. I’ve been in a fistful of torrential downpours time a tornado passed over I got in the car and 12/2 an hour I could get my lunch to white car in a crown knocking on someone’s door spending your birthday party with them swimming home through the streets of edina

    i was in a downpour that parked over the twin cities one night and when i came out of the bars after an evening of activity had to drive along a freeway with water running like a river as i drove until i noticed tail lights sticking out of the water in an underpass and has to figure out how to drive on high ground to get to my destination

    driving across saskatachawon in the middle of the night you can see the storm coming from a long way off
    it hit
    i parked and slept because the wipers couldn’t keep up and when i woke in the morning there were cars underwater in all the underpasses

    medicine hat saskatachawon my only visit had me pulling out of the shopping mall on high ground just off the freeway about 6 am with 50 or so cars in the underpass. no none saw it until they were in it

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    1. I haven’t had any coffee, yet, and I need help translating this: “I got in the car and 12/2 an hour I could get my lunch to white car in a crown knocking on someone’s door spending your birthday party with them swimming home through the streets of edina” I’m sure it’s a good story, but I have no idea what it is. Help!

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  5. When I was a junior in high school my church group did a work trip to the boot hill of Missouri. We stayed in the community center in an extremely poor county; this community center was pretty much toothpicks held together with masking tape. Halfway through the trip there was a torrential downpour and a tornado and it was clear that we were probably in more danger in that community center than not. So the leaders got us all outside and we all laid in the ditch alongside the road which was about 3 feet deep and of course filling up with very dirty water quickly. That’s the only natural disaster I’ve been a part of.

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  6. I really need to stop this audio dictation I think what I was trying to say in the first paragraph or should I got caught in a storm or a tornado passed over and I got in the car and started driving and 12 inches came down in a half an hour and I basically watch the cars in front of me get swept off the road as I had for the Highground and tried to figure out if it was possible to find roads that would be above the flooding zone I pulled into one area and watch the water race 6 inches in a matter of two minutes I backed out quickly and ended up just parking in someone’s driveway and knocking on their door in the midst of the huge downpour I got to join in on a birthday party and hang out for an hour and then swim home through the roads of Edina

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I am experiencing a flood of problems with WP. It does not want to post some comments. So I will not write more than this.

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  10. The North Shore has had a few deluges which caused problems. One very recently. In 1972 we got 6.5 inches in 4 hours. They closed the roads into Duluth for awhile. Sandy was in the hospital there 10 days after birth of our daughter and I could not go get her. But my ex-brother and wife were at my parents’ place above Duluth. They could get in from the top of the hill and down to hospital. They were going to try to bring her home to her infant she was missing badly by the back way, but I am sure there were problems on the creeks and rivers. Then they opened up Duluth.
    On Silver Creek about 2 miles above the lake there was a large dirt embankment over the culverts far below. Siver Creek seldom had much water in it. A mother was coming home with her two children. She thought the water was just above the road and drove into it. The entire embankment was washed away and they died.

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  11. Living in the Red River Valley of the North means being in floods.
    This last week, 47 years ago, 1975, we experienced another of those 100 year floods
    Torrential rains in late June began making their way to the Red. Inexorably, the water crested county roads, flooded towns and cropland. There was time to sandbag and move out if necessary but watching that water cover crops all ready standing, was heartbreaking.

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  12. We had a tornado here September 20, 2018. I was really frightened. I have a ground level “basement” which isn’t a true basement but it’s what I have. Two of the walls down there are poured concrete forms. So I convince myself that it’s safe down there. I do kind of panic now when the sirens go off. The experience with the tornado changed my cavalier attitude about it. We had many trees down on our HOA property here. Part of the roof of the building I am in was torn off and some of that was dumped on my deck. As the tornado passed over us I felt the pressure drop twice. That was terrifying and really uncomfortable. I couldn’t hear anything due to the roaring sounds and the bangs and crashes as the section of roof hit my deck. I stayed down there well after it was over. By the time I gathered the courage to come out of the basement and go upstairs, the neighbors were all outside already. I saw the damage on my deck and the trees down. My neighbors were all outside. There was standing water and debris everywhere, with lots of nails. When I stepped on the lawn, I sunk in due to all the water it was absorbing. The insurance master policy only fixed the section of roof that was torn off the unit next to me and they weren’t fast about it. My neighbor had to live with blue plastic on his west wall and the roof for about a month. This was going into October so there were rainy days. I ended up cleaning up my deck by myself and go no help whatsoever from the HOA.

    There was some flooding in Waterville a couple of years that I lived there. It was on the news. It takes a long time for flooded riverine systems to recover and there was high water there for a long time. I didn’t have any damage or problems from it.

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  13. Went to Cub and almost got peaed on. It has of course a flat roof which of course leaks. This time on boxes of cans high above the lower shelves. Man was up there on his elevator device. He pulled out a box of canned peas. I stopped and stepped back. Sure enough cans of peas rained down out of the sodden box.

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  14. I recall the extensive flooding in 1993 when the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers and their tributaries flooded large sections of the Midwest.

    It was the year Tia and I celebrated the 25th anniversary of our friendship by taking a road trip to Carbondale. As we headed south from Oswego, where she lives, the devastation from the flood waters grew increasingly worse as we neared St. Louis. From St. Louis down to Carbondale, flood waters were at an all time high and had pretty much wiped out entire communities. There were miles and miles of detours, some areas were impossible to pass through. Some of the areas were flooded for months. We visited a mutual friend just south of St. Louis, and she took us to some nearby towns half submerged in the middle of, what appeared to be, a big lake. There wasn’t a soul around; it was an eerie, quiet and foul smelling sight. It was heartbreaking to witness the unfolding of a natural disaster that devastated countless lives.

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    2. That summer of 1993 I flew to NW Arkansas via Memphis with my then 4 year old niece. Our flight path followed the Mississippi for quite a ways. We had a great view of the massive flooding. The devastation was just unimaginable.

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    3. 1993 was the year my younger niece was born. I remember going to see her in the hospital in downtown St. Paul, and coming home to the west side just before it got dark. During the height of the flood in June that year, they were closing the Wabasha Street bridge every night as it got dark. The bridge was old and considered vulnerable. Each morning they would send out inspectors to make sure the structure hadn’t been compromised by the weight of logs and debris smashing into it. They’d open the bridge during the daylight hours with continuous monitoring, then close it overnight. The bridge was torn down the following year and finally replaced in 1995.

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  16. Unfortunately, in the past 3-4 years, here in the Houston area, we’ve had way more flash floods than ever. I have been out and had trouble getting back to the house (and we’re in the country) when this happened about 4 years ago. I was only about a minute away, but every route was flooded at some spot and it was still raining. I found a higher place to park to wait it out since I drive a Honda Civic. A passing sheriff helped me get home 🙂 I have no idea why people drive into standing water especially under the overpasses. Several have died doing this in the city area. Please send rain this way. We haven’t had but a splash since May.

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      1. Hi Barbara, as I read your comment, one of the dogs came in panting. She does this when there’s a storm around. Yesterday, it got so dark and cloudy and never rained. But just now, it rained for a few minutes! No lie! Thanks for sending the short but loved droplets! ❤️ We will take anything at this point!

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  19. Update to yesterday’s Procrastination Dilemma. BiR wins the prize. This is how it went:

    VS: I have a proposition for you.
    5 minutes of kitty distraction
    5 minutes of cell phone distraction
    5 more minutes of kitty distraction
    YA: What proposition?
    VS: How about instead of a gift for my birthday, you do the front porch ceiling?
    YA: Why?
    VS: Cuz I don’t need you to spend money on more stuff and I’m clearly struggling to get the ceiling done on my own.
    YA: OK.

    Boom! Thanks all for support and suggestions!!!

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  20. The July 1978 flood is ‘THE’ flood people around here talk about. It had been a wet July in the first place, Then we got, I think 4″ one night, and two nights later, got 7″. A lot of Downtown Rochester was underwater. Our church basement was full, many businesses, and homes destroyed. I was 14 and helped mom and dad clean up a lot of them. But then a week later, I hurt my leg in the silage auger, and I didn’t have to help clean up anymore.
    One time, visiting Charleston SC, it was a full moon high tide and our rental car was in a parking lot that was rapidly filling with water. A stranger offered to retrieve the car for me so I could move to higher ground.
    Another visit, driving a bigger car, there was some flooded streets but we had a jeep, so we were OK.

    There are so many times one of us will ask ‘How long has that been there?’ Months. Oh. Just hadn’t noticed it before…

    Less is more: I’ve done some very creative lighting designs on limited fixtures and budgets. It forces you too. Having a thousand lights doesn’t always make it better; You can overwhelm quickly. The most powerful light is that one solo spot.

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  21. It took time for the initial rain to soak into the really dry soil. The 0.2″ may have soaked in better because the previous rain had softened the soil to accept the water. I know when I water really dry plants that the water just runs off quickly and doesn’t soak in. If the soil is at least damp, it accepts water well and sucks it in like a sponge. Glad you’re getting some rain. We are now in severe drought conditions here where we usually get 42″-48″ annually.

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    2. In which state are you located, nursepages? Most of us on the trail are in various places in Minnesota, with one in North Dakota, one in Ohio, and a sometime contributor – who hasn’t commented today – in Michigan. Read between the Lyme (above) is from Texas.

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  22. I’m very interested in subliminals used in advertising. Fascinating to learn what they do and how they do it in every effort to manipulate our wants. I was showing some 1970s print ad examples to my girlfriend from, “The Secret Sales Pitch,” by August Bullock. I gave her all the time she wanted to find the subliminals. She couldn’t find any of them but once they were pointed out, she couldn’t NOT see them.

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  23. I remember this rainfall, described in the Minnesota State Climatology Office:
    The heaviest rainfall ever officially recorded at a Twin Cities
    weather station fell between about 1800 hours CDT on 23 July
    and about 0200 hours CDT on 24 July 1987. During this eight
    hour interval, observers at the Twin Cities International
    airport station measured an even ten inches of rain (9.15
    inches of which fell in a five hour period).

    I was in my car on Shepard Road when the heaviest rain fell. I think there was a half-hour period when about two inches came down. I couldn’t see anything, and had to pull the car over, but couldn’t even tell where the shoulder was. Windshield wipers were completely inadequate to the task. I was really hoping there was no one on the road behind me, or if there was, that they would have the good sense to stop. It was less like driving in a heavy rain than somehow accidentally driving under a waterfall.

    Everyone had wet basements. Everyone.

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    1. I was out with friends that night in Uptown – there was a point where it was “just” raining. And then we couldn’t see across Hennepin Avenue. The restaurant we were in had to send us all out in it after awhile as they had lost power, so had zero ventilation. We were supposed to gather again at a friend’s house – I got to one intersection that was, like that low spot with the yellow car above – lower than I would have thought on a dry day and said, “nope.” I turned back and headed home, which was on slightly higher ground. The same house that a few years prior just missed the tornado that came through South Minneapolis, skipping over Lake Harriet, taking out trees in Lakewood Cemetery, and left a trail of missing roofs and uprooted trees. We were about three blocks off the main path of that twister and lost trees on our block – a couple big ones blocked the road. My brother and I were standing outside wondering what all the wind and noise was about – sirens didn’t go off until after it had passed. Yikes.

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    2. I remember it well. At the time we were living in Inver Grove Heights and were renting out the duplex on Sidney St. We called the young woman who was renting the lower unit and asked her if there was any problem in the basement. She assured us there wasn’t.

      A day or two later she called us. Turned out there was. A big section of the basement wall had collapsed and there was standing water, several inches deep. It was a miracle that the house was still standing, but she hadn’t bothered to check when we asked her.

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  24. Another memorable flood: we visited Hannibal, MO when I was a kid. We were on a family road trip and made the stop to visit the Mark Twain museum and other sites – some of which we could not get to because Main Street was entirely under water. I remember thinking it was very strange to see standing water in an even line on the hill – covering road, yards, house foundations… we could look down at Main Street, but it was brown water all the way to the river. Ick.

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