I actually went to work on Monday at American Corrugated Amalgamated Conglomerates of America to set up the corrugator and before I knew it we got the message to leave as only essential employees needed to be there. And I'm not essential by any stretch of the imagination. I promptly went home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Oh, what heaven.
I watched it rain all day. Not heavy rain, just normal rain. And it got a bit windy. Then Tuesday I found out we were closed again. And it rained a little. And was a little windy. I heard that others in Carroll County lost power, but ours only flickered now and then. We lost the cable television for about 30 minutes. But that was the worst of it.
The most fun I had was watching the pond behind our house rise to its banks, then start spilling into the grated drain, then rise even higher until it crested the spillway. I think the pond rose about 6-8 feet. Maybe more!
Before I grace you with my pictures, here are my top pet peeves from the storm:
1) the phrase "stay safe". Hey, that's a great idea. I'll cross wind-sailing from the top of my roof off of my list.
2) hunker down. We don't live under a pile of sticks in the woods. I can stand upright and still feel safe in my house. Are we all sore now from hunkering?
3) fake photos. OMG!!! - the Route 50 bridge to Ocean City was destroyed! The boardwalk doesn't exist anymore! Godzilla just came out of the ocean!
4) pictures of Marines guarding Tomb of the Unknown soldier. Yes, gallant. They guard the tomb no matter what. But that same picture has been circulating the Internet for years. Every time it rains or snows we see that picture.
5) Facebook. "Sure glad we have plenty of alcohol." That's a great idea, get drunk in the middle of a storm while your kids are scared. That way if a tree falls on your house and you're injured you won't feel it and you won't be able to help them.
6) Channel 13 - "Look, here's a puddle of 'wooder' in the parking lot. And over there some leaves and branches have fallen. Let's go take a look....."
7) The Weather Channel - "we've updated our maps from 30 seconds ago, let's take a look...."
8) the crawler at the bottom of the screen - Toots daycare is closed. Bel Air library is closed. John's Service station is closed..... Do I need to know the name of every entity in the state of Maryland that is closed???
This is our pond in April. Notice the railing over the storm drain in the bottom right corner. Notice the berm through the middle of the pond on the right side. Note the little bit of a dip in the berm behind the 2nd house from the left. That's the spillway.
Here's the pond at noon on Monday. Notice that the water is nearing the top of the storm drain and the burm through the middle of the pond is barely visible on the right side, but mostly goes across the pond.
This is about 3pm. Notice that the water has crested the storm drain and the railing is now partially submerged. And the berm is shrinking.
This picture is one hour later. We got some heavy rain in the last hour. The middle rail is now submerged and the berm across the middle of the pond is submerged. Notice the spillway at the top of the pond in the middle. It was crested and is now spilling behind drain, as designed. That's a lot of water!
Here's a creek behind our house. Normally it's just rocks and a slight trickle. This is at noon.
Here's the creek at 3pm. Muddy run-off from a nearby construction site has consumed the water.
Now the drain under me is submerged and the water is just pooling up around me.
No comments:
Post a Comment