Water, Water Everywhere

Let me start by saying that we are still in a drought here in Central Texas. But tonight we’ve been experiencing another round of flash flood-producing heavy rains, a product of the particular weather systems and geography of the area. While folks in low areas face dangerous rising waters regularly (when there actually is rain, mind you), we’ve been fortunate to live in a house that really hasn’t had a problem, knock on wood. However, with the clouds dumping inches of rain in mere minutes — after having a few substantial rains over the past few weeks — for the first time in the 18 years we’ve been in this house, our house is in danger of flooding.

That’s the front of the house.

The entryway pond is underwater, too. Good thing we don’t keep fish in that particular pond.

I don’t think we’ll flood — the slope of the land sends most of the water toward the backyard. I’m worried about our neighbors, however, and I’m a little worried that I’ll have new trenches washed out in the back. I know many low-water crossings are deep in water, so hopefully other folks are driving safe. Tomorrow morning will be interesting!

Edit: Our garden rain gauge stops measuring at 5 inches, but our closest two “official” rain gauges in the city report that we’ve had 6-7.5 inches of rain in the past 12 hours, much of which was dumped all at once. I hear rain still outside, with more storms on the radar. It’s both wonderful to have all this rain and so interesting that for once our NW part of Austin is getting serious flooding. Usually central and south Austin spots get that main experience. I sure hope this means that Lake Travis is rising — it’s been depressing how low it has been during the drought.