Doing Errands during Tropical Storm Erin

Apparently from watching the news, On Aug 15 2007 I ended up driving right into an area that was getting super rain (my term) from the tropical storm. It was "red" on the radar loop. It was raining so hard that all the surrounding streets could not drain fast enough - Fannin (by sams club and the Metro Rail Line) got flash flooded so bad that two large vehicles got floated over on the rail road tracks and the intersection with 610 was impassible. 288 under the 610 loop was like a river and cars pulled up on the grassy slopes to get away from the water. I was just down a bit from there at Scott street (Coincidentally) and 610, and that intersection was deep under water as well.

I had gone to return something to Grainger, and during the 15 min drive there it started raining. Then it got heavy. On the way to the store, you have to drive some back roads in an industrial area, not really good drainage, and I had to drive through about 5-6" of water - ok, no problem. But it was pouring cats and dogs. 30 min later when I went to leave, one exit was too deep (estimated 2' deep?) as the pickup in front of me was backing up. I drove along the parking lot /loading dock area to avoid the street for while and tried the other exit. It was about 14" deep and rising, but I had just driven that route so I figured the rest of the drive would be no problem. I got to Holmes road and started carefully down the street. Most of it was only 4" deep, but it was still raining hard. Where to go? Its always disconcerting when you look around and 18 wheelers are slowing down and accessing the situation and what to do. It wasn't too bad for a while, but then the curb disappeared under water ahead, although it didn't look very much different than the section I was on. Using the the car in front of me as a depth gauge, I judged it was passable and proceeded ahead. It went well until I hit one low spot and with my speed the water came up over the hood for a split second until I slowed down (memo to self: you also need to slow down to a crawl when hitting big water like that! ) I was getting a bit freaked out at this, as I did not want to be one of those "dumb asses" who has their vehicle floating down the road because they were too impatient. Luckily, the van kept going and the water got shallower, but where to go? I went down some side streets in subdivisions but all the roads that went anywhere were majorly flooded, so I ended up parking on a high knoll of sorts right next to the rail road track. All around me was mayhem, some were stopping, some were going ahead and giving it a shot - some made it through the water and some did not. One silver late model sedan got into water that was as tall as the top fo the wheel openings before it gave up the ghost - what its driver was thinking I have no idea. One brother in a Chevy Malibu or something like that came through there making a wake like a powerboat and going great guns, but then all of a sudden no power. Slowly his car came to a stop, then a sheepish guy gets out and starts pushing it out. He got it up where I was got it started up eventually, but was seen using a plastic cup to remove water from the inside of his ride. Some other guys decided the grass was higher than the road and they could traverse it and get up on the freeway ramp that way, avoiding the low intersection, but they didn't fully realize how wet the grass was and rooster tails of mud and grass were seen as they tried to do it. They made it, as did a few others in SUVs (is that why Houston people love SUVs, for rain?) A metro bus was stopped at the waters edge and only the other lane was open, but being an industrial area there was a parade of semis and other HD trucks going by, then some dumb lady in a newer Accord drives up to the water in the left lane (what she was thinking, I have no idea) and promptly runs out of gas, causing a big clusterfuck as now people are going up the curb and through the grass behind my van to get around, so I had to move it forward and allow more room.

Even semi trucks did not brave it at first, the water was up to the headlights (over the bumper) on a peterbuilt type truck, and you could barely see the tires above the water level. What a mess. Took me 3 hours of waiting for the water to go down enough where I could estimate on getting through, but when I saw like a Ford Taurus and Accord go through, I went ahead but it was still a bit hairy, with water coming up on the front over the front bumper - must have been 2 feed deep - but it was only for a few seconds and then turned onto the ramp to get up on 610, the elevated freeway. While there was other flooding around town, that one area I was in happened to be where all heck broke loose with a flash flood.

It turned into a bit of circus, I got interviewed by some TV camera guy. After that ordeal, and it was still raining some, I just gave up and went home, as the area around my office floods easily too, and I didn't need any more excitement for one day. The next day everyone in my office was saying "hey, I saw you on TV last night!" My 15 seconds of fame!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5061572.html