it's floodin' down in Texas...

I started a post yesterday on Memorial Day which quickly segued into a little trip down memory lane but before I finished, my daughter and the grandgirls showed up to spend the day and share a meal. Her husband and son couldn't come because they had to work.

That post will have to wait because last night about midnight a huge storm woke me up. I don't know how long it had been going on before I woke up but I woke to constant lightning and thunder, high winds and torrential rain. It went on for a couple of hours before it tapered off. The Little Backyard was covered in water as was the west side of the property but it drained off/soaked in quickly after it stopped.

This morning, the yard is littered with branches dead and green with another large limb off the pecan tree, empty pots scattered down the driveway, lawn chairs blown about, pots with plants knocked over, the arbor knocked over and onto the little dogwood tree and a totally demolished turk's cap, water still standing at the back of the property, the Lee Littlefield sculpture was turned 45˚ and listing heavily to one side.

We only got 4.5” of rain in a couple of hours but Houston got 11” in about 6 – 8 hours. The whole city is flooded. My daughter left her house to pick up her son from work at 10 PM. She got there OK but couldn't get home due to flooding. Fortunately her husband was working night shift nearby so that's where they went but now at noon, she has just been able to get home after making a previous attempt.

I tried to find the long shot of this picture but couldn't. I passed over this bridge and under it many times a week when I still lived in the city.

Also part of my old stomping grounds.

 Downtown, on the far edge of my old neighborhood.

 Drove through here every Thursday afternoon on our way out of the city.

 White Oak Bayou I think which runs through my old city neighborhood.

This could be any one of the many freeways through town that are below ground level.

As a native Houstonian, I've seen this happen about 5 times now. After the third time that the sunken freeways filled with water from storms and heavy rains, the city finally admitted that they were planned that way to capture flood water. Nice unless you're one of the people whose cars got trapped down there. Fourteen years ago tropical storm Allison sat on Houston for a week dumping 40” of rain, more than half in a 36 hour period. It was pretty awful with the tunnel system downtown flooding as well as the basements and lower levels in the medical center, the freeways swallowed up 18 wheelers as well as cars, all the bayous out of their banks, acres and acres and acres of land underwater, tens of thousands of homes destroyed. The city has made some improvements since then.

Oh, and we're expecting more rain all week.