Rain Rain...Go Away..Come back Another Day

Ever heard the saying "when it rains, it pours?"  Boy, were they ever right.  The Tampa Bay area and actually just a rather wide slice right across Pinellas County into upper Hillsborough got smacked with a horrendous storm yesterday.

I mean, it rained "biblical portions" evoking a thought from within me whether or not to seek higher elevations. The idea of an Ark was appealing too.

I awoke in the morning to the sound of heavy water cascading overhead...I quickly went to the kitchen to check the yard.  There was so much water coming off the roof that you could not even see out the windows.  Then I opened the front door a bit, it was very windy and the view was not much better. I could see that the water was rising, you have to step up a couple of steps to get into my house...the water was over the first step.

The phone rang, it was one of our friends checking if I was alright, as he knew Joe was working outside of our area.  His house was starting to see water creep on up to his front door and his backyard was totally flooded...he has a canal in back of his house but it had risen to within a few feet of his back door. I thanked him and told him to stay safe.

We had not had a good rainfall for almost a month, so the land was very dry...but when it rains like this it runs right off the land without percolating down into the water fields.

The weather was on constantly, it seems that a Bed, Bath & Beyond stores roof had collapsed due to the weight of the downpour.  The roof drains could not handle it fast enough to alleviate the weight of the water.  Looking at the devastation, it was a matter of luck that no one was seriously hurt or killed.  There were reports of several other collapses too.

I thought I had gotten by pretty good, we had sprung a few leaks in the kitchen ceiling - but it didn't look that bad.   Or so I thought, I woke up this morning to find 1/4 of my ceiling on the floor, what a mess!  Wet sheetrock, insulation and lord knows what forming a yucky mess on everything it touched.  

Well, I guess that's better than some here...some people wound up with two foot of water throughout their houses, plus drowned cars.

My sister called from Washington State last night, she asked how much did you all get? I told her 12".

"HOW much? she said.....yup 12" of rain...it's as if you took three months of the year's downfall, squeezed it into a 12 hour time period and let loose...

Hasn't happened before in the twenty years that we're here and I'm hoping that it will not again....