When it rains, it floods

It has rained since Saturday. Rained a little that day, rained a lot last night. And this morning, it rained a lot more. In fact, we got six inches of rain in just over an hour.

The rain was coming down all night. This was a torrential downpour. And it hadn't let up at all by the time I had to drive Alison to summer school. I listened to the closings on the radio in vain; her class was on. So we left ten minutes earlier than usual; I hope hope hoped that there would be less traffic, that fewer people would care to brave the streets.

I wish I could have been one of those people that had stayed home. Even the streets of the subdivision are full of water; it made me nervous to drive through them. Water was gathering on the street I take to the Interstate, and since I take the feeder road, the water on the right-hand side was way up. You can only drive on the middle of the road for so long before you have to get over to the right.

Got Alison to school — she wisely wore her rain coat for the run into the building — and the parking lot was much emptier than usual; many families decided not to risk it. Back in the subdivision, half an hour later, the water was up over the bottom of some driveways; the bottom of some mailbox posts was covered.

Southeast Houston has 11 inches of rain in a short period of time. Ground, drains are already saturated and can't absorb it. In the city, around the inner loop, the roads were closed — the 610, the Gulf Freeway were closed, with water over three lanes, over the exit ramps and feeder roads. Buildings are flooded. This storm has been likened to Hurricane Allison — not as strong, but the same type of storm. We've seen footage of rescues, of abandoned cars all morning.

It's scary. It's frightening to think that you can't find safety in your home. It's terrifying to be out on the roads in this. And I wouldn't if I didn't have to, that is for sure. Forces of nature are incombatible, it seems; we are at their mercy.

The rain here has stopped, for now. It's in the mid-70s, cloudy, overcast, wet, but the rain is no longer coming down. I'll be interested to see what the streets look like when I leave to get Alison in a couple of hours.

We suffer without rain, we suffer with too much. Thank goodness my family is safe, but I worry about others who might not be.