Pours, and pours, and pours, and pours, and pours to a total of 6 inches of rain within 48 hours. And there is more to come! I have never seen this much rain in such a short period of time since we moved to this house. During one period within 45 minutes we received more than 2 inches of rain. Way too much rain to come at once. I like the rain spread out over multiple days to eventually reach the same amount, definitely not a deluge. At one point I was beginning to consider building an ark. What made the flooding worse was that the ground was already completely saturated from several days of intermittent rain.
So how bad is it? Take a look at our own personal monsoon.
Here's where the flooding of our yard began, in the street. The rain follows a drain pipe into our neighbor's yard and down through a culvert into the adjoining property areas.
Here's the culvert full of rain water. Imagine how beneficial all that water would be if we could save it for July and August!
Then the water comes our way. I took this picture from our front porch overlooking the garden corridor. You can even see the 'Forest Pansy' redbud standing tall before the flooding rains.
Here is a look up our newly formed river. The tree on the left is next to our house, you can see how close the water is but even with 4.66 inches of rain in one day it never reached our house.
This is where I started to get a little concerned. These small evergreens are the hemlocks that will eventually be a privacy screen. All around them is mulch that has probably been washed downstream. I've actually built this area up considerably and it is getting a substantially lower amount of flooding than it could have. I think I may need a levee!
The tree in this picture is a maple and there is a
Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra) behind it. Both should be able to handle the flooding. At this point the water was a good 15 feet into our yard, the most its ever traveled into our yard.
The river now flows to the back of our property. The stand of trees to the right end of the river is on our land while the lake forming is next door. There is another drainage culvert on the other side of that stand of trees that takes the water downhill toward a community lake.
Here's a closer look at the same scene. The weather report said this morning that we'll have rain and thunderstorms for several more days. There is a stationary front sitting right on top of us that is directing all the rain through Tennessee. I'm a little concerned about the
vegetable garden but hopefully the raised beds are draining well and aren't getting too soggy. They will be ready to see the sun whenever it comes out and so will I!
Don't forget to vote in the 48 Hour Blog Challenge. With 56 votes counted this morning I'm right in the middle of the pack and I definitely need some persistent voters to keep on voting. Spread the word! Labels: Drainage Problem, water features
Here is a look up our newly formed river. The tree on the left is next to our house, you can see how close the water is but even with 4.66 inches of rain in one day it never reached our house.
This is where I started to get a little concerned. These small evergreens are the hemlocks that will eventually be a privacy screen. All around them is mulch that has probably been washed downstream. I've actually built this area up considerably and it is getting a substantially lower amount of flooding than it could have. I think I may need a levee!
The tree in this picture is a maple and there is a Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra) behind it. Both should be able to handle the flooding. At this point the water was a good 15 feet into our yard, the most its ever traveled into our yard.
The river now flows to the back of our property. The stand of trees to the right end of the river is on our land while the lake forming is next door. There is another drainage culvert on the other side of that stand of trees that takes the water downhill toward a community lake.
Here's a closer look at the same scene. The weather report said this morning that we'll have rain and thunderstorms for several more days. There is a stationary front sitting right on top of us that is directing all the rain through Tennessee. I'm a little concerned about the vegetable garden but hopefully the raised beds are draining well and aren't getting too soggy. They will be ready to see the sun whenever it comes out and so will I!