And the rains came...

[altivo]

When I left work yesterday it was raining lightly. The forecast called for thunderstorms, but nothing happened until after we went to bed. Then the pyrotechnics began. By 2 am, it was raining hard and steady, and the thunder and lightning display was almost continuous. The power cut off just after 2:30.

Gary went with a big battery lantern and tried to look out into the area between house and barns. He was convinced that the water was rising, had already swallowed the bottom fence rail of the dog exercise yard, and must be two or three inches deep in the boys' barn. I looked but wasn't convinced. The steady, hard rain continued, and the lights didn't come back on. About 3:50 we went back to bed, both to have weird dreams while the lightning continued to flicker outside the windows. I got up at 6 am when there was a little light, but the cloud cover was so heavy you still couldn't see well.

However, water was nowhere near up to the boys' barn. The dog yard was full of water all right, but not to the bottom fence rail (that would have been over a foot.) The creek was over its banks and the duck enclosure had an inch of water in it.

When we went out to feed, we found that the arena, where the sheep spend the night and Tess has her stall, was dry as ever. The boys' barn had some water in both stalls so that the bedding was soggy, but no sign that it had actually flooded. Rain came down so fast that I think it poured in through the top of the Dutch doors.

The rain gauge showed a little over five inches of rain overnight (about 12.5 cm.)

We have no basement in our house, only a four foot crawl space with gravel on the floor. Flooding down there is bad because it will breed mosquitos and over a long period of time, promote mildew and mold. Also, the well pressure tank sits down there and the regulation mechanism could be damaged by water and mud. There's a sump pump to prevent that. It didn't occur to me that I wasn't hearing the pump run periodically, but after I made my way to work over half flooded roads, Gary let me know that the sump pump was not operating and there was six inches of water in the crawl space. He was working on it.

He also hauled the emergency generator out of the garage and wheeled it around to the far end of the house, where we have a hookup for it. Got it running so the refrigerator, freezer, and well pump could run. By then the power had been out for eight hours and the temperature was climbing. Of course, as always happens, shortly after he finally got the generator out, the power came back on. In the end, I left work early to come home and help with the sump pump, which turned out to be clogged with floating debris rather than actually dead. It's running every 80 seconds as I type this.

Good thing that. More thunderstorms are expected tonight. The water is receding, but another inch or two of rain will pump the levels right back up where there were this morning.

Comments

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

Only your crawl space flooded. I had no internet. *ducks thrown object*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, it goes without saying that we had no internet either. All the power being off will do that.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

We had a fantastic light show here, but couldn't hear any thunder at all. According to the radar, the storms were 20 or 30 miles north of us.

Strange that the light can travel that far.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not really that strange. Think how far light travels from stars and we can still see it.

I've seen lightning flashes reflected on clouds when the lightning itself was over the horizon. That's what, 40 or 50 miles away?

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Avast, ye lazy lubbers! Man the bilge pumps before ye all be in Davey Jones locker!

@P.-D ?

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Davey Jones was a right bastard.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Something very much like that. The pump is still running this morning every couple of minutes.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I say all these rural area conundrums sound rather frustrating. Living in suburbia I find these problems interesting, while at the same time feeling sympathy for the poor equine that has to deal with them.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's a tradeoff of course. There are some suburban irritations that don't apply here. No one can complain because I have horses or sheep, or because there are weeds in my grass. I don't usually have to hear the neighbors' television, radio or stereo. We do get to see a lot more wildlife, as you probably have noticed.

As for the power going off or the basement flooding, that happened to us even when we lived in the city of Chicago.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Yeah this strange thing the "home owners" association that I hear about in some places in the US, we only have that sort of thing in a gated community and its usually the Body corporate. In standard suburbia if anyone came round and hassled you about your lawn or something they'd end up being marched off the property XD

Oh and its very rare for Queensland houses to have basements at all. I've only been in one house that had a basement. Many have a ground level garage, laundry, storage room etc. Attics are quite rare too as it gets far too hot in there. Heaps of houses are on stumps as well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's not just homeowners associations, but in some cases actual city or town laws that attempt to enforce the length of your grass, what color you can paint your house, or what sorts of plants you can have in your garden. Not only can you not have junk cars in your yard, but in some places you can't leave a car parked in your own driveway, or allow a visitor to do so. Many places have regulations against clotheslines, antennas of any sore, etc. and even attempt to legislate what kinds of fencing are allowed or not allowed and whether you can have a dog or cat.

The US is supposedly the "Land of the Free" but to me it has always looked like the land of absurdly enforced conformity.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I don't think its been "free" for a long time

skeeters

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

A funny thing, we have very little rain, but many mosquitos- or so everyone else says... I've been sleeping more or less outdoors and have gotten almost no bites at the shelter. Everybody else is dousing themselves right and left with repellant, and I just waltz through with no problem... one of them accidentally sprayed himself in the face with the stuff *shakes head* Sometimes I think I was put on earth to observe the stupidity of others :P well, at least I do it well XD

Re: skeeters

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's true that some people attract mosquitos faster than others do. The bugs come to body heat, and the carbon dioxide and moisture in your breath. So if you are near someone who radiates more heat or breathes more (heh) then they get the bites. I notice this particularly when I am near my horse. The mosquitos come to her first.

Also when camping with friends some years back. One got all the bites. Either the rest of us didn't taste good, had tougher skin, or he was hotter. ;p

~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Have you heard or listened to Mathew Ebel's "Rain?" Just curious.

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Nope. Never heard of it.

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

http://hawknest.stacken.kth.se/fmf/archive/Rain.mp3

(Yes, that's a legally free MP3)

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OK thanks. I'll download it at work tomorrow. MP3s over dialup are too painful.

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Downloaded. Nice music, but man, what a depressing set of lyrics. ;p

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[(Anonymous)]

Fits my life a lot, heh, sorry. :P Not even being Christian, I like his music and thought you might too ... your post reminded me of this song.

Re: ~/o So the rains came down ... o/~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said, the music itself is good stuff. But I don't find rain depressing at all. And thunderstorms are downright fun most of the time.