Most of the time when the local weather people threaten a serious storm, it doesn't materialize. But this time they were spot on. We don't have an anemometer so I don't know exactly how fast the winds were today but by the looks of some of the trees, telephone poles, and debris in the roads, I believe them when they say we had gusts of 60 miles per hour or more.
This beautiful oak tree in front of the Carmichael library suffered like many other trees and telephone poles in the neighborhood. My son Ed's front rain gutter was literally blown off the house and some siding was blown loose. We didn't have that problem but we did see the new carport/tent we installed at Thanksgiving time sustain some damage as did the new gate hardware I installed recently. 
At one point this afternoon the wind wasn't so bad but the rain was pouring down in sheets. You can see the water in our rain gutters pouring out the end where we had cut a relief channel. Without the relief channel, the water would come pouring onto our front porch like it did in the back.
We don't have a relief channel in the back rain gutter so the water poured out onto the patio even while it's discharging the water at the bottom spout at maximum level. It doesn't make any sense to cut a relief channel here. We got 2.5 inches of rain Friday, half of that came in a 30 minute spurt during which I took the pictures of our house. Unless we get some more of those downpours, it's doubtful that we'll get as much rain today.
The power was out at our house about 1.5 hours but was out all day at Ed's house and in the Santa Cruz hills. Ed and family came to stay the night with us. Steve and Lisa were tempted but weren't sure they wanted to drive so far with more storm coming. That would be a hard decision to make.
So that's what happened to all the rain that was supposed to come here! We were warned of 2-4 inches for Long Beach this weekend, but have seen less than 1 inch.
ReplyDeleteWe spent the day hunkered down at Steve's lab on campus because our power has been out since pre-dawn Friday morning. We emptied the contents of our fridge & freezer and put them in the lab fridge (not the same one the sponges are kept in, thank goodness). We've eaten all our meals here and taken advantage of the shower installed for those who bicycle to work. It's kinda crazy. It's quiet outside right now, but at the peak of the storm, 3 of the 4 ways out of our house were blocked and there was debris everywhere (well, still is, I suppose). Having an electric well pump is a really bad thing when the power is out. Our place has no lights, heat or water. Fun, fun.
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