Musings on Nature's Fury

Okay, just to recap, since August 23rd, 2011, we've had in the Baltimore area:
        1 Earthquake
        1 Hurricane (Irene)
        3 days of heavy rain (thank you, Tropical Storm Lee), which lead to lots of flooding and sump pumps failing everywhere.

If I were a superstitious person, I'd say Someone was trying to tell me Something.  Luckily, I'm not superstitious, so I can just ignore the Signs of the Impending Apocalypse.

Back to School Nights are not cancelled due to heavy rains.  Attendance was down, but if I had to deal with a flooding basement, I'd have stayed home, too.  In a way, though, it was nice going when there weren't as many parents there.  I felt like I got to see the teacher, although there still wasn't enough time to personally chat with any of them.  (Remember, the first rule of Back to School Night:  It's about hearing about the curriculum and class procedures, not about connecting with the teacher.  Email is your best friend.  Really.)  Because of the Back to School Nights, my sleep habits were messed with and I got maybe 8 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period.  Cranky and exhausted described my mood by Friday evening.  Thank God for the weekend.

We had anywhere from 5 to 14 inches of rain in the Baltimore/DC area, according to meteorologist Doug Hill (WTOP radio).  I read somewhere that if it had been snow instead of rain, it would've been something insane like 70" of snow.  I can handle rain much better than snow.  Main Street, in Old Ellicott City (just down the road from me--about 3 miles) had some bad street flooding when Tiber river overflowed it's banks.  Here are a couple of videos I found (I was teaching 2nd grade on this day.  Somehow, we didn't close schools--maybe the Powers That Be thought we were safer in school.  I think we were.)

This video was taken just over the Patapsco River bridge in Old Ellicott City (OEC).  Most of the river you'll be seeing is actually the Tiber, not the Patapsco.

And from further up the road, by the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company restaurant:

I have a couple of pictures of the Patapsco River the day after the flooding:

Patapsco River at the Baltimore/Howard County line

Patapsco River at the Bridge (going towards OEC)

And a few of the Patapsco from further down (Washington Blvd) by the Avalon area of the State Park (which was closed...)

Patapsco River at Rt 1 (I-895 off ramp in background)

Detritus collected by pylons
Patapsco River at Rt 1

But, the sun is shining.  My older son (with supervision from his grandfather), has mowed the lawn.  There's still a chance of rain in the forecast for the next few days, but nothing like what we've had.  (Honestly, we had thunder and lightning that made me think of when I was in Taxco, Mexico.  Loud and rolling on forever.....)

Oh, and as if there isn't enough to worry about, my friend Liz says her old sump pump caught fire during all this rain, so I guess we'll have to add "sump pump inspections" to our List of Things to Do before the next weather event.....(everything is fine at her house...her husband got it mostly under control, but the Fire Department came and made sure it was all safe.  Yay for the Firemen!)

Dry out and stay aMused....