Calling H2S!! H2S please check in and reassure us you aren't flooded

[NMDemDist2]

out of your home

:grouphug: for you and Sparkly Princess and Sparkly Jr too.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. They're in Maryland, right?

Hope they're OK.

[NMDemDist2]

2. yes. any other foodies we should be worried about? I don't know

anyone else that lives in that area

mike c maybe??

[Gormy Cuss]

3. I think mike c is a left coaster. n/t

[mike_c]

9. nah-- thanks for the concern but I'm only a couple of miles...

...from the pacific ocean in northern california. The weather here is cool, dry, and wonderful.

I hope H2S and family came through alright!

[NMDemDist2]

11. ok, so now I have an idea where you are

i know *most* of our regulars enough to have an idea where they are

thanks for checking in too!

[wildeyed]

4. My folks are in MD, not too far from H2S.

They have water in the basement, but otherwise are ok. I hope The H2S clan is faring as well.

[Warpy]

5. I notice a part of Rockville I lived in as a kid

is under an evacuation notice.

We've been having flash floods out west, too, huge thunderstorms after 8 months of no real rain. Roofs have caved in and houses have been flooded, but it's over quickly, doesn't hang around for days like it does back east.

It's either feast or famine, eh?

[catnhatnh]

6. H2S was posting earlier this week....

...while visiting Washington DC...Not sure if he has returned home yet.....

[Stinky The Clown]

7. All safe and sound here!

Thanks for checking in!

We've got a house full of out of town company and the only thing the rain's done is get us wet while touring DC ... as reported here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2698632

and here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2698679

We got caught in some gawdawful downpours, but managed to get out of town okay. We took the Metro. Anyone who drove may well still be stuck in traffic. All the Smithsonian Museums are closed - even today (Thursday) - due to flooded lower levels.

Our house has a stream on the side of it and another at the back and they're high, but our house sits well above them and the water is all draining off just fine. In fact, even with the rain, we've managed to eat outside each night and watch the deluge.

The serious flooding is in two places. One is about 10 miles from us and the other about 15 miles. In both cases there's been evacuations. The scary one is an earthen dam that seems to be seeping. The water behnd it is 21 feet (!!) above normal. The other damn is a flood control dam and they've opened the flood gates causing a controlled flooding downstream that has caused the evacuation of about a dozen homes right on the river bank.

The bad weather is over now, though. Yesterday and today were/are bright and sunny .... and ***very*** muggy.

I'll have some pizza experiment reports to file later this weekend or early next week!

[NMDemDist2]

8. all righty then! glad to hear it and glad you got a chance to test

pizza through it all

you do keep your priorities straight doncha??


:rofl:

[eleny]

10. Nice hearing the good news about pizza!

Well, we have our priorities around here! :evilgrin:

[Stinky The Clown]

12. For you, eleny and for AZDem ......

.... priorities .... you betcha! :)

[eleny]

13. And you're one of ours around here!

:grouphug:

[grasswire]

16. H2S....

...maybe you can tell me how the Potomac's doing? When I read about flooding at the Archives, I couldn't believe it was Potomac water flooding the Mall that far up. Is it? If so, wouldn't there be water at National Airport and Old Town Alexandria? I think we would see pics of that even out here in the West. I recall being in Alexandria when the water closed the lower shops on King Street. The water was a couple of feet up the piano in the back bar of the Fish Market.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. The Archives, Museums, etc, were flooded by rainwater, not the river

Keep in mind ... DC was built on a swamp. The water table is naturally high. The rain was truly biblical and the storm sewers just couldn't keep up.

There was some minor Potomac flooding in Georgetown and in Old Town Alexandria.

We were at the Reflecting Pool on Tuesday (where MLK gave his Dream speech). You'll recall from those pictures that the Reflecting Pool has a granite curb all around it making it a formal pool. The granite was completely under water and it looked almost like a wild pond with grassy banks. Very weird.

[Lugnut]

14. Glad to hear you're okay H2S.

We had over 11 inches of rain here from Sunday AM until Wednesday AM. We had some seepage in the basement just because the ground is so saturated. Thank goodness for sump pumps.

Wilkes-Barre is about 25 miles North of us and they were in much bigger trouble. They are slowly getting back to normal but there was a tremendous amount of damage in the Wyoming Valley and Back Mountain regions.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. Are you near the dikes along the upper Susquehanna?

I heard it was touch and go for them and if they broke it would rival the devastation in New Orleans. Now that the river's falling, they're finally breathing a sigh of relief.

Some areas near us got upwards of 15 inches. The local teevee weatherheads are saying this was a 300 year storm.

[Lugnut]

18. I'm in lower Luzerne Co.

Every town along the shores of the Susquehanna was holding it's breath, H2S. The river crested earlier than they anticipated because it stopped raining earlier than expected. Most areas are not protected by a dike system and they were all inundated.

When the river topped the dikes in Wilkes-Barre in '72 it was very much like New Orleans. My aunt and uncle lost everything back then. The dikes were raised a few years later.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. 72 .... that would have been Hurricane Agnes, no?

Around here, Agnes is the storm by which all other storms are measured. Our town has an 'old city' area that dates to the very early 1700s - older, in fact, than the oldest parts of Baltimore. In 72, the lower end of Main Street was under 18 feet of water; the water stain is still visible on the buildings.

We didn't move into our house until 1980. But we're told that even during Agnes, this specific area never flooded or even suffered any wet basements. We're **very** fortunate. However, we do have streams that border two sides of our property and they get pretty scary in heavy rains. One is so benign that it actually dries up at times in summer. The other is never more than a babbling brook. But both turn to deep, fast torrents in heavy rains. The one on the side has since had a 36" drain pipe installed when it crosses the road. There used to be a bridge of sorts there, but it always overran the bridge and just raced across the street. This week, the water existing the 36" drain was coming out like water from a fire hose. It literally blasted about 10 feet before touching ground, having scoured the bottom of the natural swale away. I'm sure the county will be by to add some rip rap like they did a few years ago.