It's raining, its pouring, Lansing is floating away

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:43 am

Right now we're under a flash flood warning. My wife just called from work and said the south end of town is flooded badly. Her switchboard (she's 911 dispatcher) is lighting up with calls of cars floating through intersections, basements full of water, water-related electrical shorts, you name it. Fortunately I installed new gutters last autumn, so I have only some wetness on the floor. The water is literally leaching through my old sandstone foundation walls (doing as they were designed to do). But no flooding!

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:29 am

Our fire departments and heavy rescue units are driving through the streets..in boats! Apparently a bunch of people's basements are caving in and houses are starting to collapse. Hundreds, if though thousands, of homes are affected. They're trying to evacuate, but it's not going well.

Bonefish · Post by **Bonefish** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:36 am

Dem, that really sucks nuts.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:10 am

Our water, electric and sewer utility just had a "critical system failure," and saw fit to notify 911 of the problem, but would not specify what the problem was.

Raygun · Post by **Raygun** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:13 am

Uh oh.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:29 pm

That's insane! We got rain, but nothing particularly impressive. Greenville got 3.25 inches, which is a pretty good dumping, but not really flood material. I'll have to check the Grand on my way past today to see how it's doing in GR, but in Lansing it's up quite a lot: check out that rate of increase, from 2.5 to 8.3 feet in 12 hours. I can see why the streets flooded!

Jeff Hauze · Post by **Jeff Hauze** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 1:56 pm

Time to break out the Bro.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:24 pm

Lots of folks without power this morning. Whatever shall we do? Fire & Brimstone! Locust! Plague! We're all gonna die! Please God, help us!

Several homes flooded, but only one confirmed collapsed foundation at the moment. Red Cross came out to "save the day" with food, water and temporary shelter for some of the evacuees.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:27 pm

UncleJoseph wrote:Our water, electric and sewer utility just had a "critical system failure," and saw fit to notify 911 of the problem, but would not specify what the problem was.

On top of whatever this critical system failure was, one of the water treatment plants had to be shut down yesterday (before the rain), because a worker dumped a truckload (literally, an actual truckload) of chemical into a vat of acid instead of pure water. The resulting reaction caused a large spill and vapor cloud in the plant. They've switched us over to another plant, but now there aren't any back-ups in place.

Iantha · Post by **Iantha** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:55 pm

How is Lansing doing? Have things calmed down a bit? We got a good dumping but nothing extreme.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:44 pm

Iantha wrote:How is Lansing doing? Have things calmed down a bit? We got a good dumping but nothing extreme.

Well, things were getting back to normal until last night, when we got hammered with rain again. Another flash flood warning, and now there's lots of stuff underwater. Several homes on the south end are flooded up their mailboxes. Many basements with several feet of water.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 4:24 pm

How has your basement held up?

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:59 am

Same old same old...cracks everywhere. No cave-ins...just cracks. We had a little dampness on the walls and floor that first night, but nothing since.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:33 pm

That's good then. I'm glad to hear your improvised fixes held up.