The Swamp

The Sybian wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:44 pm Water started coming in at 7:30. Filled a 5 gallon wet vac over 30 times and countless buckets. Neighbor and his hs son came over to help. 5 of us with vac, towels and mops kept it under control. Finally caught up and dried the rest of the room while i keep vacuuming where it came in. Good news, supposed to stop raining earlier, now 1-2 instead of 3. Not sure when the water will stop coming in.

Good neighbors are irreplaceable. Rain really starting to let up here now, thank god.

Just caught up on this thread… holy fuck, I had no idea how bad this was. We were just balls out trying to keep up with the water… I feel guilty worrying about my issues. Then again, if we weren’t monitoring since last night and I didn’t have help, I’d have 200+ gallons of water built up.

same neighbor we watched their dogs. Guy is a cop, absolute great guy. I just asked to borrow the vac, he stayed until we got to a point where we caught up. Water slowing down, can keep up with a mop. Too worried to go to bed and see what I’d wake up to.

DAMN! Good luck, guys!

Yikes!

Hope the clean up is as painless as possible.

Glad to hear Syb. Been worried about the NJ crew.

Philly crew too.

Ocean State

Well that's not gonna be a quick repair. Jeebus.

It looks dry! No idea what’s going on inside the walls though. Town Facebook forum is a horror show. Tons of flooded houses. Lots of people still stuck on 78 from their commute home from work. Gridlock of abandoned cars.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:08 am It looks dry! No idea what’s going on inside the walls though. Town Facebook forum is a horror show. Tons of flooded houses. Lots of people still stuck on 78 from their commute home from work. Gridlock of abandoned cars.

I can't imagine. I don't think people comprehend how catastrophic a 5" - 9" rainfall forecast is. Or what it means for stuff like...driving.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:11 am

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:08 am It looks dry! No idea what’s going on inside the walls though. Town Facebook forum is a horror show. Tons of flooded houses. Lots of people still stuck on 78 from their commute home from work. Gridlock of abandoned cars.

I can't imagine. I don't think people comprehend how catastrophic a 5" - 9" rainfall forecast is. Or what it means for stuff like...driving.

We are literally (literally!) the only people we know around here who didn't get water inside. Two we spoke to in the front, two on the side, one in back, others inside a half mile all took on decent water and we were totally dry. No idea how we lucked out there but this area's basements are just fucked and apparently the town two away (where people go to stay on the train but avoid diversity) had legit boat rescues. And the Home Depot Rass mentioned is closed today, which puts it halfway between the irony and the falling apart threads.

Holy fuck, guys. I'm glad you escaped relatively unscathed, D. I hope things aren't too bad for any of the rest of you.

I'm curious, how far are you from any notable creek or lake?

A little mini-river but nothing that could overflow like that. This was just pure volume; I think I read central park broke their hourly record by like 60%.

Our basement was officially unaffected. Neighbor checked for us.

People we met down here from Mullica Hill are good, just lost a shed. Their neighborhood is the one that’s been all over the news.

Is it in a pool?

Ha. Appeared to be under a tree.

I've mapped watersheds before but...

Police blocked off the main road in town close to my house. Detoured around, and some asshole drove around the barricades and they were trying to tow him out. I mean, there was a fucking lake across the entire road, it's not hard to follow the detour one block out of the way.

Mayor sent out a robocall that the river will crest its bank tomorrow morning, expect severe flooding. I'm far enough away that I shouldn't have a problem at my house, but it will surely close off my main route into town and cause damage to a lot of houses. I can understand this kind of damage from a hurricane that hits from the Atlantic, but to carry this much rain this far across land? Has to be unprecedented, right? The other weird thing, the air was really dry today, and my street and driveway showed no signs of rain by morning. I'm desperately in need of a driveway paving, so I usually have puddles for a long time after a normal rain.

There’s precedent for it. Camille in 1969 had catastrophic flooding in PA and was a gulf cat 5.

Holy shit, just catching up on this thread. Crazy stuff, frogs. Sorry about your homes. Glad you’re all ok. Especially Giff.

Down in Myrtle for vaca..house is bone dry as my buddy texted..lots of camera watching, both of our place and the doggo at camp. Town is a mess from what I'm told by folks there and local fb pages and twitters. Old hood was a lake. The missus was frantic on Wed night...fortunately all seems OK. Did have someone come by and borrow my pumps (from previous storms, good to have)

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 6:55 am Holy shit, just catching up on this thread. Crazy stuff, frogs. Sorry about your homes. Glad you’re all ok. Especially Giff.

Wow, same here. Hope everyone dries out soon.

phxgators wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:52 am

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 6:55 am Holy shit, just catching up on this thread. Crazy stuff, frogs. Sorry about your homes. Glad you’re all ok. Especially Giff.

Wow, same here. Hope everyone dries out soon.

Well it seems like a shit time to quit drinking!

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:01 am Well it seems like a shit time to quit drinking!

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:30 am

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:01 am Well it seems like a shit time to quit drinking!

TWILTS

Found out yesterday one of the deaths in NJ was our sister town: a dad (50s) tried to clear out a drain and didn't come back inside for over an hour, people looked for him but it was in a flooded area so they couldn't see/do much and his body was found at the end of the street and down a block the next morning.

JFC

Something like that really reinforces my commitment to “never try”.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:40 pm There’s precedent for it. Camille in 1969 had catastrophic flooding in PA and was a gulf cat 5.

We had crazy floods in 2004 after (I think) Ivan.

Gunpowder wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:57 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:40 pm There’s precedent for it. Camille in 1969 had catastrophic flooding in PA and was a gulf cat 5.

We had crazy floods in 2004 after (I think) Ivan.

For certain. Remnant rains from a land-falling system are a well known and huge problem. I suspect that very often though, with land-falling systems in the gulf, people overlook that aspect as the moisture associated w/ the leftover tropical system well inland is very often overlooked.

In this case, there were somewhat complicated but extremely well forecast complications that enhanced the moisture feed associated with Ida over the NE. Models were printing these outputs 4 and 5 days ahead of time - even before Ida made landfall. I suspect that the issue is the public doesn't associate/process the danger of flash flooding due to crazy heavy rain in the same way they do a snowstorm or wind event.

tennbengal wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:17 pm

Gunpowder wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:57 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:40 pm There’s precedent for it. Camille in 1969 had catastrophic flooding in PA and was a gulf cat 5.

We had crazy floods in 2004 after (I think) Ivan.

For certain. Remnant rains from a land-falling system are well known and huge problem. I suspect that very often though, with land-falling systems in the gulf, people overlook that aspect as the moisture associated w/ the leftover tropical system well inland is very often overlooked.

In this case, there were somewhat complicated by extremely well forecast complications that enhanced the moisture feed associated with Ida over the NE. Models were printing these outputs 4 and 5 days ahead of time - even before Ida made landfall. I suspect that the issue is the public doesn't associate/process the danger of flash flooding due to crazy heavy rain in the same way they do a snowstorm or wind event.

It's often quite localized too, ie only a few people see really bad impacts.

Gunpowder wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:25 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:17 pm

Gunpowder wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:57 pm

tennbengal wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:40 pm There’s precedent for it. Camille in 1969 had catastrophic flooding in PA and was a gulf cat 5.

We had crazy floods in 2004 after (I think) Ivan.

For certain. Remnant rains from a land-falling system are well known and huge problem. I suspect that very often though, with land-falling systems in the gulf, people overlook that aspect as the moisture associated w/ the leftover tropical system well inland is very often overlooked.

In this case, there were somewhat complicated by extremely well forecast complications that enhanced the moisture feed associated with Ida over the NE. Models were printing these outputs 4 and 5 days ahead of time - even before Ida made landfall. I suspect that the issue is the public doesn't associate/process the danger of flash flooding due to crazy heavy rain in the same way they do a snowstorm or wind event.

It's often quite localized too, ie only a few people see really bad impacts.

Yes. For certain. Except...in this case - when it was pretty much "localized" to all of eastern PA, most of Jersey, and NYC and surrounds. It was a staggering amount of real estate involved.

Road closures have a detour going past my house. Crazy guy across the street posted on Facebook tagging the Mayor to complain about all the speeders. She tagged the PD, and damned if they aren't responding. I've been in my office for a few hours today and seen 6 cars get pulled over in front of my house. Crazy guy parked both his cars in the street across from each other, making a choke point when cars go through in opposite directions. Not sure if I applaud his idea or think he is a complete asshole. The Gadsen flag in his front yard screams asshole, but when he came over with his snowblower the day mine died in a big storm, before we had even met, gives him some leeway.

And as I type, car #7 pulled over. Looks like they are just warning people, not giving tickets.

Went for a walk this morning and went down a street 2 blocks closer to the river. The backyard of every house was under several feet of water, if not more. Looks like a lake with houses in the middle of it. According to the oldtimers on Facebook, this rivals the flood of 1973. There is a slight hill between my house and those houses, so I'm not in any danger of the river reaching my house, but man, those people are screwed.

Back home as of yesterday. Have some neighbors on the street whose pumps are still intermittently belching out onto the street and one neighbor who spent a Syb like night successfully holding disaster at bay, but all seems ok.

Went for a long run this AM into mister d’s town and its border towns. Didn’t notice much until heading down Valley St towards Millburn. The golf course looked really wet, and no one was playing (unusual for a Sunday am), and oh yeah, there was a fucking boat on the course, washed up against a fence bordering the sidewalk.

When I hit Millburn Ave along side a small branch of a larger river (Rahway) it was pretty bad. A whole stretch of houses and office buildings that had obviously flooded. One residence had chickens that I’ve seen all spring and summer long and the coop was choked up with weeds and debris and completely lacking chickens. :( That river sets the border back into my town, and the strip mall just on our side of the border was flooded, including the town meadery. According to their socials they’ve been cleaning since Wednesday and might be able to reopen the tap room as soon as today. Their outdoor seating was definitely below the max water line based on photos they posted.

This is a photo of the river at the border between Millburn and Union, where there was flooding on both sides of the river as described above. So the water exceeded what you see there, plus I guess managed 3 or 4 feet above that even hundreds of feet away (based on the location of the Meadery). Crazy.