Wild Storms (Monroe: hardwood floors, insurance, university)

[Johnny C]

This weather is unreal - I havn't seen storms like this in years. I live in the East suburbs and the flooding is crazy! Wild lightning and drenching rain. Many streets are like rivers - anybody have any stories or pics from the storm?

There are some pretty insane pics on TV from around town - looks like most of the damage is from flash flooding.

[BrianTH]

So during the worst of the storm a clog of branches formed in one of our gutters, which ended up directing a stream of water into one of our basement window wells, which overwhelmed the drainage in the well and filled it up like a barrel, so water started leaking past the window into the basement. And we would never have known if our son hadn't asked for a sticker book when going to bed, which meant going down to his playroom in the basement (where the window was located).

Anyway, I spent the next 45 minutes or so in the pouring rain redirecting the water stream and then bailing out the window well, while my wife and son were moving his play stuff out of the water in the playroom. So he got to bed late, but he also had a blast--it was all very exciting for him, and he always likes to see his daddy get soaked. The only part he didn't like was when mommy went out his bedroom window to the porch roof to unclog the gutter (he is much more protective of mommy).

[highway29south]

That was some storm! Our basement flooded on the one side and even our fireplace was leaking. One positive thing- the garden got a great watering!

[Mugatu]

I hadn't seen thunderstorms like this since I left Florida. I live near Robinson and the first storm brought some serious lighting, while a second storm a little later brought some squalls with heavy winds that gave the trees a good workout. Fortunately, I don't think there was much damage on this side of town though, the storms seemed to strengthen as they moved east and just blew up over Monroeville.

It was interesting to see how poorly this area is equipped to deal with this weather, with the topography and ancient sewer system causing flooding problems throughout the area. These type of storms are common in the summer afternoon in Central Florida and people just go about their business because it's simply a fact of life down there.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by Mugatu

It was interesting to see how poorly this area is equipped to deal with this weather, with the topography and ancient sewer system causing flooding problems throughout the area. These type of storms are common in the summer afternoon in Central Florida and people just go about their business because it's simply a fact of life down there.

Yeah, let's just see how Central Florida would react to a couple of inches of snow and some ice...

[Mugatu]

Originally Posted by Tinare

Yeah, let's just see how Central Florida would react to a couple of inches of snow and some ice...

Snow and ice? Just give them temps below 50 and they think it's the apocalypse!

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

I didn't realize the storm was THAT bad until I turned it to KDKA this morning.

I mean, there was some lightening and thunder, and heavy rain last night, but where I lived, we still had power. The Direct TV went out for about an hour, so I just turned on the stereo and listened to music.

When I turned on the news this morning, they were talking "State of Emergencies" in some towns and borough's. I was like WTH?! The crazy thing is that they're calling for more SEVERE storms Friday afternoon, so get ready for Round 2.

[fleetiebelle]

It started to rain while I was still at work last night, and it took a while before I realized that it wasn't going to slow down at all and I'd have to walk across campus in the deluge. A couple of streets on the CMU campus were flooded, and the pick up/drop off circle in front of the University Center was about 6 inches under water. So of course some kid was doing donuts in the middle of it.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

So during the worst of the storm a clog of branches formed in one of our gutters, which ended up directing a stream of water into one of our basement window wells, which overwhelmed the drainage in the well and filled it up like a barrel, so water started leaking past the window into the basement. And we would never have known if our son hadn't asked for a sticker book when going to bed, which meant going down to his playroom in the basement (where the window was located).

We had a similar situation during the El Nino storms of the late 90s. Pine needles and gravel clogged a downspout resulting in a literal waterfall down the entire back wall of our dining room! Luckily it was covered by our homeowner's insurance. We had to move out for three weeks while the wall and our hardwood floors were repaired.

Hope things are ok for you now. I've seen the coverage of the wild weather on the news. Not fun!

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by juliegt

Hope things are ok for you now. I've seen the coverage of the wild weather on the news. Not fun!

Thanks for your well-wishes--through the pure dumb luck described above, at worst we are going to need to replace a little carpet in one room in the basement. So comparatively speaking at lest, we feel like we dodged the proverbial bullet.