5 inches of rain in 90 minutes

[dave1949]

Few months ago we had 13 inches of rain in about 5 hours..... washed some really big gullies where none had been before.... Unclear what the max rainfall rate for each 15 minute period was.... this was in rolling country and my house is on top of a hill.... still, water was coming off hill in sheets...none, however, in my house or work shop.

It did fill up the cracks from the extreme drought!

I grew up on the Nueces River, saw it flood too many times to count. Went coon hunting and often would find them hidden in a drift pile stuck 20 feet up in a tree... helped me understand the power of water.... and to respect it.

Sounds like you house and shop are in the right place. If they did okay through that, you should be safe.
Dave.

 

[tallyho8]

I have to agree with Sigarms, if anyone wanted to build a dam above my home, I would be dead set against it, and I wouldn't buy one in such a location. I was really surprised they didn't decide to abandon parts of NO. I think the election rhetoric got in the way of that.

If sea level rises continue and NO continues to subside, which seems likely, I don't know if it is smart to throw money at projects there.
Dave.

If the Corps decides to build a dam above your home, it doesn't matter if you are against it. They will do it anyway the same as they built the MRGO canal to New Orleans that flooded out every home in St Bernard Parish during Katrina despite the objections of the people of St. Bernard to building the canal.

New Orleans may subside so badly that it is impossible to save in another couple of centuries but this is a man-made situation that could be reversed if the Corps were to remove it's levees south of New Orleans.

In this same period of time, the entire west coast of California could be destroyed by earthquakes, Seattle could be destroyed by a volcano, Wichita Falls could be wiped off the earth by a tornado and many other parts of the country could be destroyed, but these are by natural forces and not man-made forces as those that could destroy New Orleans.

Building expansion in New Orleans was severely curtailed years ago when they decided not to build any more in the swamps of eastern New Orleans and instead turned it into a national wildlife refuge. Lack of building room plus the political climate has caused New Orleans to go from being the 2nd most populous city in America many years ago to the 59th most populous today.

Although New Orleans is not a major city anymore in population, the port of South Louisiana and the port of New Orleans are by far the largest volume shipping ports in the Western Hemisphere and are vital to our country's economy and must be maintained.

 

[dave1949]

If the Corps decides to build a dam above your home, it doesn't matter if you are against it. They will do it anyway the same as they built the MRGO canal to New Orleans that flooded out every home in St Bernard Parish during Katrina despite the objections of the people of St. Bernard to building the canal.

That's horrible. Reading the wikipedia entry on the MRGO canal, it would seem shipping interests pushed for the construction in the 1950's. It has been responsible for many problems according to the article. Now it's closed.

Another one of those 'we are masters of the universe projects' that were so popular back then. Still living with the results of that 60 years later.

And people wonder why there is so much red tape for projects these days. That canal is a poster child.
Dave.

 

[tallyho8]

We had another 6 inches of rain last night and it is still raining. The ground was already completely soaked from our rains last week so it is all running off and creating a huge mess. We aren't going to just break our December rainfall record we are going to more than double it this year. And December is our driest month of the year next to October. By the time it stops raining today we should have over 24 inches of rain so far in December and it's not half over yet.

 

[EddieWalker]

I saw on the radar image that you were getting more rain this morning. I sure hope it dries out for you real soon. I've never been through it like you are right now, and hope it never happens here. I've seen two 5 inch downpours, but they were over a couple of hourse. Both times, it came from nowhere and the forecast was only very slight for a chance of rain. I was caught off guard both times too, but was close enough to home to just get soaked and nothing more.

From what I've read about the levi's, they've known for a very long time that they were in danger of failing. Funds were set aside to fix them back under Clinton. More funds were made available under Bush. Every time, nothing happens because it gets all tied up in the courts. The environmentalist refused to allow the work to be done, and sued everyone involved. Hopefully they got it right this time. I watched a show on TV that talked about the engineering and construction of the repairs. It's pretty impressive.

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

We had another 6 inches of rain last night and it is still raining. The ground was already completely soaked from our rains last week so it is all running off and creating a huge mess. We aren't going to just break our December rainfall record we are going to more than double it this year. And December is our driest month of the year next to October. By the time it stops raining today we should have over 24 inches of rain so far in December and it's not half over yet.

That's an awesome amount of rain. If that happened here, most of the roads would be cut to ribbons. Even a quick 2" downpour will start cutting gullies in the berms.

Hope the second half of the month dries up a bit.

The jet stream must be not in it's usual winter location yet. We haven't had the cold air from Canada yet, but tomorrow night's low is to be 2*F. It's 33* and foggy at the moment. Crazy weather.
Dave.

 

[texasjohn]

Tallyho8, feeling for ya, keep treading water there, buddy..... sooner or later you will find dry land again

 

[tallyho8]

It's official now. As of 6 PM 12-15-09, this December is the wettest month in the history of New Orleans and there are still 16 days to go. We have had 22.54 inches of rain in the last 15 days to make this the wettest month since they started keeping records in the 1800s.

Luckily, this is just a mild inconvenience for me since I live on the highest property in the Parish (county). I am not able to stay outside and do any work and it drives me crazy to sit indoors all day long. Plus my horses are upset about being locked up in the barn for a few days because the pasture is too soggy to turn them out.

Surprisingly, there have been less homes flooded this month than at times when we had much lower amounts of rain because all the pumps are working to capacity at this time.

A cold front has just come in driving the rain away so I will be able to go out and work in the slop tomorrow.

 

[Thomas]

" We have had 22.54 inches of rain in the last 15 days"
Dang..bright side,glad it wasn't snow.

 

[mjarrels]

When I lived in the Philippines, during rainy season you could probably run a jet boat down main street, in a parking lot or down the cubi point runway. Would rain so hard that water was probably 4" to 6" deep on a flat surface.

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