Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Friday, May 31, 2013

A lot of rain (Updated)

We just got a lot of rain in a very short time. As a result, my basement looks like this:
You can see my pump pumping the water out, but the water gushed through cracks in the floor faster than the pump could handle. My side yard is flooded, so it may be a while before my basement is dry. And it looks like we will get more rain tonight.

(It has been several years since I have a flooded basement. This has been a very wet spring and we just got an impressive downpour.

I do not have a rain gauge.  Anyone know how much rain we got?

Update: When the water in the sewer receded, I got rid of the water you see above. However, the rain that came at midnight reflooded the basement, though not as badly as the first time. The water in my standpipe was a couple feet above the level of the floor. This morning I found that most of the basements in my neighborhood got water last night, some from sewer backup and some from seepage.

A quick look around town showed lot of branches down and also a few trees. The tree below was snapped off and the cemetery workers were busy removing it from the road.
 On Milroy Street a large tree was uprooted, taking some of the sidewalk with it.
 It did some damage to the hood of a car.
 A neighbor said that a truck trailer was blown over at Hopkins Trucking and that the Dairy Queen had roof damage.

The ground is completely saturated, so any additional rain, even if it is minor, will cause problems.
Update 2: A tree fell on a house at the corner of Scott and Leopold, doing damage to the roof. A pick-up truck nearby had a branch fall on it, doing considerable damage. There were a lot of downed branches in this neighborhood.

The gym floor at Saint Augustine School got considerable water even though it is at ground level. The west door does not seal and the wind blew water from the parking lot into the gym.

The river is still rising. Flood stage is at 12 feet and as of this writing (Saturday evening) it is at 13.34. There is a line of rain to our west but it may be weakening. We do not need more rain.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We got 2.35" west of Rensselaer

stepthil said...

that pump looks familiar!!

w55555553 said...

Oh wow, that all looks so awful. We're having a lot of rain here in Germany, too, so much so, that free hotels are being offered to anyone who wants to go to the affected areas and volunteer to help.

Anonymous said...

UPDATE: Pickup truck with 'considerable" damage was ruled a "totaled" vehicle!!!!
Crunched hood ruined too many mechanical parts--A good truck for 15 years!!!!