OMFG Louis in St. Louis hide yourself and the Integra

[eddief]

I hope you and it are way ok. Duck and cover dude. Bury the unbuilt Kirk too.

[Nooch]

seriously, watching weather updates on facebook, hope everyone is safe and sound.

[buldogge]

Can't speak for Louis' neck of the woods (although one of the storm's path came pretty close to him), but the actual city of St. Louis has been unaffected so far, other than heavy rain and some brief hail.

-Mark in St. Louis

[Louis]

Hey guys - thanks for the kind thoughts, they seem to have kept the worst of it away. However this evening was not without adventure.

I was trying to get some stuff done at work and checking the weather radar every now and then so I knew that some thunderstorms were heading my way. Happily, the NOAA "1 hr precip" showed that the really heavy rain was slacking off a bit as it approached, and my house was spared the super-torrential downpours. (Just the same we got about 1.4 inches over 5 hrs, and it's still raining a bit.)

We eventually lost power at work so after waiting around a bit and figuring out what highways were closed due to misc issues I realized that I could probably make it home. About 6 miles from my house I got to a road-block - power lines down ahead. So I did a big loop around that. The big question was going to be a section of the road that's right by a creek, and sure enough there was tons of water there. The flooded section extended at least 150 yards. I drove through the first 50 yards but it was getting deeper and deeper so I pulled off onto a little road on the side that went away from the creek. I decided to not chance it, so I turned around and headed back. About half a mile down the road I met three cars heading toward the flooded section. I stopped them and told them about the water, but they decided to keep going.

I turned around and followed them, figuring that if the could make it, then maybe I could too. (but all three cars were bigger and higher than mine) They did make it so I waited for them to clear the area and slowly went into the last 100 yards. About 40% of the way through, even though I was going very slowly, the brown water started to wash up over the headlights, I assume because it was being picked up by the front spoiler. When that happened I couldn't see anything at all (pitch black except for occasional lightning, no street lights at all way out here). Then the front end of the car started to act squirrelly so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, put it in reverse, and backed up. Unfortunately backing up in the rain in the dark on a flooded road isn't terribly fun, and after a bit I started to go off the road into the grass. Luckily I was able to make it back to the road and back up into the little side road.

What was frustrating is that the flooded section was right before the turn-off into my subdivision, which is up a monster hill so I was maybe 200 yards from safety.

So, I had to make another big loop. There was another low spot on the other side of the entrance to my subdivision, but it was only a few inches of water, so no problem. So I finally get to the entrance to my subdivision and there's a car that's turned in, but stopped with it's flashers on. I get out and ask them what's up, worried that there might be a tree on the road up ahead. (That happened last week, when a huge oak came down and so I had to knock on the home owner's house (right before they went to bed) and he came out in the rain with his chainsaw to clear it out.) The folks in the car said that they had just gone through the deep flooded section and that their engine had died and refused to start. Help was on the way for them, so I continued on home to find everything safe and sound.

So that's my Friday night story. There was plenty of other stuff going on - a casino lost part of it's roof, etc etc. What a mess.

Take care.
Louis

[cdn_bacon]

hope all is well with the St. Louis crowd.

[bobswire]

Hey guys - thanks for the kind thoughts, they seem to have kept the worst of it away. However this evening was not without adventure.

I was trying to get some stuff done at work and checking the weather radar every now and then so I knew that some thunderstorms were heading my way. Happily, the NOAA "1 hr precip" showed that the really heavy rain was slacking off a bit as it approached, and my house was spared the super-torrential downpours. (Just the same we got about 1.4 inches over 5 hrs, and it's still raining a bit.)

We eventually lost power at work so after waiting around a bit and figuring out what highways were closed due to misc issues I realized that I could probably make it home. About 6 miles from my house I got to a road-block - power lines down ahead. So I did a big loop around that. The big question was going to be a section of the road that's right by a creek, and sure enough there was tons of water there. The flooded section extended at least 150 yards. I drove through the first 50 yards but it was getting deeper and deeper so I pulled off onto a little road on the side that went away from the creek. I decided to not chance it, so I turned around and headed back. About half a mile down the road I met three cars heading toward the flooded section. I stopped them and told them about the water, but they decided to keep going.

I turned around and followed them, figuring that if the could make it, then maybe I could too. (but all three cars were bigger and higher than mine) They did make it so I waited for them to clear the area and slowly went into the last 100 yards. About 40% of the way through, even though I was going very slowly, the brown water started to wash up over the headlights, I assume because it was being picked up by the front spoiler. When that happened I couldn't see anything at all (pitch black except for occasional lightning, no street lights at all way out here). Then the front end of the car started to act squirrelly so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, put it in reverse, and backed up. Unfortunately backing up in the rain in the dark on a flooded road isn't terribly fun, and after a bit I started to go off the road into the grass. Luckily I was able to make it back to the road and back up into the little side road.

What was frustrating is that the flooded section was right before the turn-off into my subdivision, which is up a monster hill so I was maybe 200 yards from safety.

So, I had to make another big loop. There was another low spot on the other side of the entrance to my subdivision, but it was only a few inches of water, so no problem. So I finally get to the entrance to my subdivision and there's a car that's turned in, but stopped with it's flashers on. I get out and ask them what's up, worried that there might be a tree on the road up ahead. (That happened last week, when a huge oak came down and so I had to knock on the home owner's house (right before they went to bed) and he came out in the rain with his chainsaw to clear it out.) The folks in the car said that they had just gone through the deep flooded section and that their engine had died and refused to start. Help was on the way for them, so I continued on home to find everything safe and sound.

So that's my Friday night story. There was plenty of other stuff going on - a casino lost part of it's roof, etc etc. What a mess.

Take care.
Louis

That's quite and adventure Louis :eek:, think I'll stick with earthquakes.

[MattTuck]

Louis,

You should option the rights of your story to the weather channel. They could do a dramatic reenactment.

Glad you're ok!

[Louis]

Update:

At the start of my ride today I swung by the flooded section of road to see if there was anything interesting. In two spots I saw bunches of straw on the sides, which I'm pretty sure were the high-water marks. I'm guessing that they were at least 12" above the road surface. (I have no idea how close in time my attempted passage was to the crest.)

I also forgot to mention that in my last drive through the somewhat flooded section of road I saw a fish flopping around in the ~2-3" of water that were on it at the time. I felt sorry for it, but there really wasn't much I could do - I was in no mood to get out in the rain, splash around in the water in my somewhat decent shoes, and try to catch it in my bare hands, then try to figure out how to get it back to the actual creek.

[slidey]

Man, your story brings back memories of Jumanji in my head! Stay safe, and as dry as possible.