2004-5 Pipe

2004 07 27 Heavy Rain

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We had a torrential rain here from 5:45 until about 7:00 PM today. I don't know how much fell but my guess is 4 inches. It was unbelievable. We had a small kiddie pool sitting out in the yard, and it was empty before this rain, and about 1/2 after. That's about 4 inches.

Here is a link to a "personal" weather station that logged this storm. I am not sure how close it is to us, but it's probably within 2-3 miles at most.

The culvert (a 24" concrete pipe) at the street was totally overwhelmed. It never got blocked, and I checked recently to see that it was still flowing. Anyway, as a result the front yard was flooded, the street was flooded, and we had a very nice river through the side yard on the low side of the house. The yard on that side of the house and the drive are torn up.

(These pictures are crappy because it was pissing down rain and if I used the flash the photos would be nothing but silver spots. And this all happened so fast I did not have time or the inclination to get a tripod. I had no idea this was going to be as bad as it was.)

What first got my attention was looking out from upstairs and seeing water in the street. By the time I got my camera and got a rain shell the situation looked like this. Elapsed time, maybe 3-4 minutes.

This first shot is taken standing in our drive looking along the east lot line more or less towards the river. The first standing wave is caused by the metal edging on the drive. The water is probably 8 inches deep and moving fast.

This shot is from the same place in the drive looking west. The street is about 25 feet to the right.

Taken from a little further out in the drive, looking towards the river. You can see the standing wave along the curve of the drive.

Taken from the middle of the road, looking west. The glow is from a streetlight. It was dark enough at 6:00 PM in July that the lights came on. The 24" pipe that has been overwhelmed is at the left, just past the two small trees.

Back in the drive, looking towards the house.

In the street, looking at the flooded creek and the overwhelmed 24" pipe that should be handling this water. The entrance to that pipe is just past the floating trash near the small trees.

Another shot looking west down the road. The rain has subsided but is still coming down.

One of the most amazing aspects of this incident is that the rain started, the water rose, the rain stopped, and the water fell, all in about 75 minutes. 75 minutes after the rain started the creek was back in its banks and the flood was gone.

The next day I inspected the yard and found that about 8 feet of ground around the 24" pipe outlet was gone, taken out by the flooding, and there was significant erosion around a manhole structure that is (was) about 75 feet up from the outlet. I contacted the city about repairs..

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