PopTop
11-22-2004, 08:25 PM
We have been pounded with rain all year, with the wettest June and October already on record and November surely to follow. I believe we are almost 25" above our average rainfall. And it has wreaked havoc with my recent vacation plans last week and again today, though messing with my fishing trip this week and mine and Patty's trip to the beach last week is really nothing compared to the absolute hell a lot of people here in Central and Southeast Texas are going through right now.
So I came home two days early this morning from Houston. What is usually a 3-hour drive turned into almost 5 hours. And now Patty is stranded in San Antonio for the night since all of the little creeks are swollen and over their banks making it totally unsafe for her to drive this way since so much of the water is wont to flow right by us into Canyon Lake or the Guadelupe River. At least the fact she's a travel agent comes in handy for times like thiis and she's getting a room comp'd at an Omni near her office.
Canyon Lake was reportedly at the 943' level at three this afternoon; 948' means it goes over the spillway and 957' means it tops the dam which would be devastating to the city of New Braunfels. It went over the spillway on July 4, 2002 (the weekend we moved up here full-time :hmm: ) and that was bad enough. Our house sits at an elevation of 1080' about a mile west of the dam. If it gets to us, well, that would likely mean just about everything SE of I-10 in Texas would be completely under water.
The forecast is for more rain tonight and tomorrow, though they are backing off a bit and thinking we could get an inch or less before we finally get a break. I really have no idea how much we've had here at the house. I've measured 16" since everything started last Sunday (Nov 14). But my rain gauge has overflowed twice during that span, so I'm guessing it's probably closer to 18". We don't have a lot of dirt on top of all the limestone that dominates the crust here, and even a little quarter-inch storm can now produce incredible flash floods with the runoff. The good news is so far there's only one death, and that was a lady washed off the road in a flash flood today. But I'm hearing from friends and neighbors about a couple of nearby ranches that have lost some livestock, and there are even bigger ranches south of us who have been hit harder. The town of Sequin is especially unlucky since it has the Guadelupe River and Lake McQueeney, plus the San Marcos river to its east, all out of their banks or backed up with feeder creeks out of their banks right now.
So, what is it: El Niño, La Niña, Global Warming, Plain Ol' Bad Luck? :notme: Or is the Big Guy upstairs just pissed off at the way we've abused this planet? :(
So I came home two days early this morning from Houston. What is usually a 3-hour drive turned into almost 5 hours. And now Patty is stranded in San Antonio for the night since all of the little creeks are swollen and over their banks making it totally unsafe for her to drive this way since so much of the water is wont to flow right by us into Canyon Lake or the Guadelupe River. At least the fact she's a travel agent comes in handy for times like thiis and she's getting a room comp'd at an Omni near her office.
Canyon Lake was reportedly at the 943' level at three this afternoon; 948' means it goes over the spillway and 957' means it tops the dam which would be devastating to the city of New Braunfels. It went over the spillway on July 4, 2002 (the weekend we moved up here full-time :hmm: ) and that was bad enough. Our house sits at an elevation of 1080' about a mile west of the dam. If it gets to us, well, that would likely mean just about everything SE of I-10 in Texas would be completely under water.
The forecast is for more rain tonight and tomorrow, though they are backing off a bit and thinking we could get an inch or less before we finally get a break. I really have no idea how much we've had here at the house. I've measured 16" since everything started last Sunday (Nov 14). But my rain gauge has overflowed twice during that span, so I'm guessing it's probably closer to 18". We don't have a lot of dirt on top of all the limestone that dominates the crust here, and even a little quarter-inch storm can now produce incredible flash floods with the runoff. The good news is so far there's only one death, and that was a lady washed off the road in a flash flood today. But I'm hearing from friends and neighbors about a couple of nearby ranches that have lost some livestock, and there are even bigger ranches south of us who have been hit harder. The town of Sequin is especially unlucky since it has the Guadelupe River and Lake McQueeney, plus the San Marcos river to its east, all out of their banks or backed up with feeder creeks out of their banks right now.
So, what is it: El Niño, La Niña, Global Warming, Plain Ol' Bad Luck? :notme: Or is the Big Guy upstairs just pissed off at the way we've abused this planet? :(