At about 5:30 the rain we were getting turned into really, really heavy rain. Within a short time after that I discovered that we had moved to Lake Shore Drive.
That shot is straight out the driveway, please excuse the focus there, it was pretty dark out and I was shooting without a flash.And I guess it is not correct to say that we have moved to the lake shore. Actually the lake has come to us.
That one pans up the street to the east, and possibly of some significance, slightly downstream.Fairly obviously we are not on any sort of "drive". The new lake occupies the area formerly occupied by the street. Here is a pan to west, note the two fairly significant streams entering the new lake.
I had on my oldest shoes, they were wet anyway, so I went ahead and forded the streams to get around to the other side of the street for this shot of our house slightly after high water. The lake at this point has already started to recede.
According to testimony given by the City Engineer at a council meeting when the new softball field was being approved, this area of the city is underserved by the storm sewer system. What she meant is that when the sewer was installed the level of development which now exists here was not foreseen. Since the sewer was buried we have had more low areas filled and lots and lots more hard surfaces, streets and driveways constructed. The pipes that we have are not as large as what would have been installed if they had foreseen the neighborhood as it now actually exists. What happened this morning is that the storm sewer pipes were completely full, running at full capacity. On our street we had to wait for some of that water to pass out the other end of the pipes before the water on our street could enter the drains.This is known as bad planning.
Later on I went out and got a shot of the high water mark on our mail box post. The level of grass clippings on the post is about 19 inches above the ground.
I did a little extra measuring and estimating and the spot where the yard stick is placed next to the post is about 6 inches above the level of the street. So we had about two feet of water in the cul de sac.We got some water in the basement but only nuisance water, not monetary loss water. Our neighbor across the street had his cement block basement wall collapse. He has about four feet of water in his basement.
As I type I can hear the pump outside. He has hired professionals and they are here pumping out his basement, step one. His water is monetary loss water. He has already been informed by his insurance people that this event is not a covered loss.
Perhaps somewhat amazingly, a little later on bicycling still managed to break out. This is Bennet Lake in Central Park.
The fence is the right field corner of one of the softball fields. There are two paths (one pedestrian, one bicycle) beyond the fence before you get to water's edge where you can walk up that ramp and out onto a fishing dock.At least you could before we moved to lake shore drive.
1 comment:
Whoa! Glad you escaped with minimal damage. I had no idea.
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