Here at the house, we had everything either under cover, tied down (literally), or inside. Sunday morning at 10:15, the rain gauge red 2.5". At 11:15, it read 3.5". Five minutes later it was up to 3.75".
At that point I realized a flaw in all my planning; I hadn't accounted for Fuzzy only going outside to do his business. For those that haven't followed this blog long (or, forgotten), the other two cats don't let Fuzzy downstairs to use the cat boxes. Fuzzy goes out every morning to do his stuff - fortunately the rain was light early morning, so he went out when I fed the dogs. But, If the rain lasted until late in the day, there were going to be issues. I donned a rain coat and headed out under the deck where I had placed Fuzzy's winter catbox (if you don't ask, too bad, it is a long story). While I was out there, I dumped the rain gauge as it only goes to 6" and I figured it would overfill a the rate it was going.
After that, we headed into town so I could get coffee and WS needed a few things for his lunches the next week. The rain was very heavy, but the roads were handling it well. We got our stops in and returned home. WS made breakfast (a Sunday morning ritual) and I settled down to read.
Awhile later, the rain had lightened up and it seemed the worst was over with. I checked the local radar and found that, indeed, we were in the clear. We had a bit of wind to go, but it wasn't too bad - probably didn't get anything abouve 50 MPH, and then it was more along 30-35 MPH. In total, we got just a bit over 5" of rain. The driveway held up (supprisingly) although there were af ew runnels - one was from the lower corner of the Jeep (it is parked on an angle), and another at the bottom of the lower portion of the driveway - nopt bad at all.
However, others weren't so lucky. The system veered further west than they had figured and the portion that they thought would hit the Monadnocks (our area), hit Vermont. The Upper Valley and Northern New Hampshire got pounded too. There are several bridges out - and we aren't talking small bridges - including the Loon Mountain Bridge (check out some of the videos at the very bottom of the page, and more videos here). US 302, NH 1, US 112, NH 12, Jefferson Notch road are all closed due massive flooding washing out bridges and roads.
As bad as the North Country has it (the Loon Mountain Bridge has made getting between two town something like a 45 minute drive now), Vermont got blasted. The flooding has really taken a toll. Take a look at the 511 map - most major roads seem to be damaged. Someone caught a covered bridge as it was being torn away from the embankment.
We were planning on riding to Vermont today, but there seems to be no way to get anywhere. Hopefully the worst of the damage to roads can be repaired in the next couple of weeks as both states depend a lot on tourism (leaf peeping season is nearly here) for income. They have already stated that the Loon Mountain bridge will get a temporary bridge and then the replacement bridge will be started next year.
Many people scoffed at the mild storm, for most people in the area, it was no more than an inconvenience. For many though, it was a major upset to their lives and livlyhoods.
I have highschool/college friends from VT, the pictures posted are decidedly scary, more so because I've seen the houses in question, not only in good weather, but even in spring floods when it wasn't nearly that bad!
Posted by: Ruth | September 04, 2011 at 09:47 AM
Bogie--Thanks for the video. It really made me cringe. I really appreciate, too, your description of what all went on. (Poor Fuzzy!) It is too bad that we haven't figured out how to control the weather; but, I'm not sure that I would wish for us to be able to do that. (I'm being careful what I wish for!)
Posted by: Cop Car | September 05, 2011 at 12:14 PM
That is some really fast moving water. That old covered bridge had no chance.
Posted by: beacon tire | September 06, 2011 at 01:55 PM