Saturday, September 19, 2009

Mini-flood waters


Here are some pictures of the storm/flood yesterday that I tweeted about all night. Because East Tennessee is a profoundly rainy place under normal conditions, we don't flood much here; when we do, the wet-weather creeks and streams carry it all away quickly. To look around now, you'd hardly be able to guess we got three inches plus of rain in about an hour last night. Even our driveway has new gravel now.

Above is a shot of the little culvert that runs down the side of our front yard. It doesn't ordinarily look like this when it rains, obviously, or we'd have moved the chairs. The big clump of plants behind the chairs are some very happy Tennessee water iris.

Above is the back yard, taken from the upstairs hall window. That's my car getting washed by God right there. The back yard floods every time it rains, but not this badly. You can see it's all washing down into the neighbor's yard, where the bamboo forest thrives in the swampy conditions. Do not talk to me about invasive plant species or I will have an apoplectic fit.

Here's me, drenched despite my umbrella. You can see the lower part of the side yard behind me.

15 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Yikes! I hope everybody finds a way to be high and dry. A nice downpour like that and we'd have to swamp out the basement.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Woo Hoo, a river runs through it!

Jameson T. Caine said...

I love the view when looking into your backyard. We look out our rear windows and all we see are a dozen other houses, with skyscrapers in the distance. I'd love to have some space between me and the neighbors...say about a mile.

Fox Lee said...

Could I borrow a pinch of that rain? I worry about my poor flowers!

Cate Gardner said...

I love a good downpour, but then we don't flood here. Quite frankly your view is amazing and Jameson's sounds equally so - skyscrapers - sigh!

My view is terraced houses, all nicely stacked together like lego bricks and a railway embankment.

Jamie Eyberg said...

That is a whole lotta rain. I hope it dries up quickly, or at least stops soon. (Just think if it had snowed with that much moisture!)

K.C. Shaw said...

Aaron--One of our neighbors had their basement flooded. We don't have a basement, so we're safe.

Alan--lol! Practically.

Jameson--I want to move to the middle of a hundred empty acres and build a tiny house. The back yard here really is gorgeous. To the right, past the neighbor's bamboo, is a great big cowfield on a working farm, and then nothing but trees.

Natalie--Sure! It's raining right now; I'll try and shoo it your way.

Cate--Yeah, if I can't have trees to look at, skyscrapers would be almost as good.

K.C. Shaw said...

Jamie--They say it's been such a wet year that we're liable to get a lot of snow this winter. "A lot" of snow meaning "more than one inch." :)

I do love rain, especially when I can stay in bed and listen to it. Rainy Sunday mornings are perfect!

Unknown said...

"That's my car getting washed by God right there" and "Do not talk to me about invasive plant species or I will have an apoplectic fit" made me snort coffee through my nose.

We've got it bad down here in Georgia too.

Paula RC said...

I hope you are nice and dry now. Here in little England we've had it all just lately. I'm happy to say I've been lucky and not been flood out yet. Some people haven't been back to their home since the flooding in 2007.

best wishes,

Jarmara

K.C. Shaw said...

Jeremy--I have relatives in Alabama getting washed out too. I guess it's all over the southeast. Lucky us, huh? (I didn't know you were in Georgia. Howdy, neighbor!)

Jarmara--I feel sorry for the folks who are having real flooding. I hope you're safe and sound where you are--sounds like you've had some rough weather lately. We're lucky here in the Tennessee valley, since the mountains protect us from most nasty weather.

Anne Spollen said...

What a pretty place you live in!

K.C. Shaw said...

Thanks, I feel very lucky to live here.

Carrie Harris said...

So glad you're not all treading water right now.

K.C. Shaw said...

Don't worry, I float. :)