Pretty sure Harvey was an imaginary friend....
I take it those numbers mean over seven days?
Once in Eureka, CA we had 6" of rain one night...
luckily I was down in Los Angeles for a few days then..
Drainage is the thing. It was pretty good there in what they call Eka, but still could overflow once in a while.
Don't get me going on drainage in Albuqerque, which has seemed to me to be almost completely drainage ignorant. It's the Arroyo system or nothing. Not a lot of arroyos in my neck of the woods. Contractors seem not too savvy about drainage matters either. (I get to say this as a retired landscape architect). I've whined about this before on a2k.
There is relatively little rain compared to many places, but it is occasionally fast and furious. Most people I know here have water flowing to their back door, in my case, it's a lake that moves into the house. No drains to the curb, of course.
At this point, I can't afford to redesign, if the city would even let me.
The crazy building practices have rendered Houston flood prone with a lot less rain than that. Fortunately for me, I live on a very long slope of ground that would be almost impossible to flood.
@ossobucotemp,
Adds, Diane and the Dys had this problem too. And, natch, my neighbors. Lake Side dining.
@edgarblythe,
Well, I'm not cursing Eureka (I know you know that), they were pretty smart. Sometimes, the drainage system would overload, but basically the drain system worked pretty well (I thought).
Our city streets and freeways are designed to trap rainwater and let it slowly drain. Which creates floods for traffic. Then the subdivisions were built with little thought to flood control and many flood every time there is a major rain event. All I can figure, the people in charge must be rolling in bribe money.
@edgarblythe,
I'm not sure Abq even had a planning department. If so, the land is pretty loosy goosey. I was for some years involved with LA city planners. I didn't look for a job there because I couldn't do the night after work drive, but I knew the people back then.
I mentioned that my subdivision does not flood. But, they turned the main road that passes us into one of those roads that traps water. Then they built the Grand Parkway and where it crosses that road, the water runs off of it at the intersection and floods where it never did in the past.
@ossobucotemp,
ossobucotemp wrote:
No drains to the curb, of course.
Which would only matter if your backyard were higher than the curb.
@edgarblythe,
That, or stupid.
I'm out of all this now and don't know, could a possibly fast drain system improve matters? and why not?
I was involved in some subdivision design for a then major US company. I may remember its name sometime soon or later or not. Not my favorite part of the business, but at least at our end, we were legit. I preferred a job on an ordinary small house garden.
@ossobucotemp,
As I understand it, it would cost a vast sum of money to correct all this and nobody seems motivated to to move on it.
@roger,
if the curb lets it out, it is a water release.
Re being lower, depending on construction modes, you may have a pit at the back wall or fence or free flow to your neighbors.
@roger,
hello, water moves, not always completely one way.
I forgot that I had a flood problem when I moved in here, 21 years ago. They had built a school at the intersection where my street comes off the main road. It channeled all the rainwater from there to the cul de sac that ends at the back of my lot. The school sent so much water there that it came in a strong current and fanned across my entire back yard, about a foot deep. The strongest flow hit the corner of my mobile home and caused the block there to sink about four inches. The entire kitchen listed badly. I took my trusty shovel and dug a trench across the entirety of my land, angling it enough, that when the water ran off from the school, it was channeled to the water company property, harmlessly moving on to drain off at the street. I've never had another such problem, even in the most severe weather.
@edgarblythe,
And I bought a jack to lift up the house corner.
Hoping for the best for you guys over the next week. Stay dry.
