One word: INUNDATION
I'm 37, and have lived in the Richmond area for about 35 1/2 of them. I remember Agnes in 1972, Fran in 1996, Floyd in '99, and certainly Isabel last year. We've had tornadoes, devastating ice storms...I even delivered newspapers in the Blizzard of '96. I THOUGHT I'd seen it all.....until today.
It was "supposed" to be a day off at home watching the kids. The morning set up that way, as I sat down with them to finally watch "Finding Nemo", which I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn't know I'd see alot more water later in the day....
We left around 12:20 for lunch at Wendy's and the clouds looked quite ominous. We knew the remnants of Gaston were riding up I-95, but we were told an inch or two of rain, heavy at times....probably like what we saw with the remnants of Charley the other week.
We ate, then headed to the office, with UVA's first football broadcast on tonight and commercials were STILL coming in to get ready.....add that to some other boiling issues, and I ended up there about 5 1/2 hours on my "day off".
Bonnie picked up the kids around 2:30 after her day at work, as we watched the 5 inch TV behind my desk unfold the tornado/rain scenario while the "center" of Gaston was just crossing the North Carolina border. That wave of bad weather calmed down and we were left with a heavy rain. I kept working. Even turned the TV off for awhile....
One co-worker left, called twice to my next cubicle-mate, who drives an hour home to Williamsburg, giving her advice on where to go and not to go to commute home. By this time, THE north-south thoroughfare of the east coast, Interstate 95, was underwater near downtown Richmond, and closed. This of course, led motorists from downtown workers to 18 wheelers to vacationers from wherever having to find an alternate route.
Unbeknownst to me, the "alternate routes" were getting dramatically less, and less, and less.....
At 630pm, I headed for home. Takes ten minutes, or about two long songs to get home from work. I had to stop at Wawa (Wawa, sounds like a baby talking about "water", how ironic!) to get gas. I got what I needed, and thought, "a mile and a half left, let's go home".
I turn right to go the usual way, and see cars turning around. I forgot...this road does go through a low-lying field and has been known to flood. It looked high, so, no reason to take a chance, we'll go home an alternate route.
I continue down Staples Mill a half mile to the Food Lion to turn right on Hungary Springs and go "around the block", so to speak, to my turn-off road. To my shock, I discover the road I wanted to turn onto completely submerged in water, with a car stuck right in the middle of it all. I'd never seen that before.
After, finally, successfully managing my way out of the turn lane and back onto Staples Mill (which by the way, is a major four-lane highway heading Northwest out of Richmond, or to the Southeast in), I proceed up to Hungary Road, figuring, get to the main road rather than take a short cut, and I'm home free. I turn, get to a light, and look ahead to realize more cars were turning around in this, too, a four-lane highway. It goes over what used to be a lake on a golf course (where condos are now)....tonight the lake went over the four-lane highway.
Okay...regroup, NOW what do I do? I get back on Staples Mill, and hit an all-new level of shock. There's been lots of new residential and commercial development on the south side of this stretch of Staples Mill Road, and I could see the massive rainwater just dragging the mud and dirt from the construction areas onto Staples Mill Road. Eastbound Staples Mill looked like it had been attacked by a mudslide, not just heavy rain; it was brown! Meanwhile, I'm plowing through standing water in the westbound lanes. Knowing more "construction" area was coming, I decide to turn into a subdivision to take, hopefully, yet another back way home.
I'm 3/4's to the main road, and hit even more standing water. I made it through, though the Cougar thought of stalling, and I made it to the Stop sign. To the right, I see cars. I know there is standing water in front of me, so I go right. I get to the end of the road to make one last turn to get to the main road, and I run into what could be best described as a "recently created pond". Turn around, again, and head back to the Stop sign. I have no choice, let's turn right.
I pray and I pray and God carries the Cougar through the water. We're at Mountain Road! YES! Now, over the tracks, right on Purcell, 1/2 mile or so, and I'm home. :)
I get over the tracks fine, go to turn right on Purcell, and stop dead in my tracks, as the creek under Purcell Road is now a fairly raging river. There's NO way through it. I turn around, back to Mountain Road....look down a side street, it's even worse. Then 1/10 of a mile further, I realize.....this road is closed, too!!! The US Mail truck in front of me is just sitting there. So, into the parking lot at the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen, and back to Mountain and Purcell, where I sit for a moment on the side of the road, and re-compose.
I re-cross the tracks, pull into the parking lot of Glen Allen Market, it being threatened by the aforementioned "pond", and go back, to Purcell. I pull into a driveway, and call home. It was my second call...this time, to say, I can't get home. Bonnie, thinking more level-headed than I (we're up to seeing eight flooded roads by this point), suggests go back down Mountain to Staples Mill, to 295, down Route One, to Parham, to Woodman, to Terry, to Purcell, and come in the other way on the home side of the bridge (which I figured was flooded, too.)
Okay, first question---is Mountain passable to Staples Mill. Second question--how's Staples Mill there? It was horrible 3/4 mile east of there, which was why I got off that road to begin with. We begin the new phase of the journey.
1 1/2 miles down Mountain Road through "old" Glen Allen, with only one minor flooded area to combat, and we make it to Staples Mill. I turn right, realize, with no construction in this area, the water issue was much improved, I headed for the on-ramp to I-295 (Richmond's psuedo beltway).....only to see a police car, a ton of water, and a car submerged on what was the on-ramp. Yikes. Can't get on 295 here.....I keep on down Staples Mill, seeing the off-ramp also submerged, and think, I'm almost in Hanover County now, I've gotta turn around!
I get to the next place to U-turn, do so, (while going through MORE water), and head for the on-ramp on the eastbound side. Would it be open, or submerged?? I couldn't tell, and I and the car behind me were both anxious to find out. Got to the ramp, started around, and to my relief, we discover it passable...onto 295 we go. Of course, at this time, the "heavy" rain falling turns "torrential"...AGAIN...just as we're in big traffic. I bypass my exit home, knowing that road is the first one to go underwater in flooding conditions, and go to the main artery, Route One, near our old elementary school. Standing water on Route One in the right hand lane, so I battle to get in the middle lane and proceed down 1 mile to find Parham Road.
The power's out there, so no traffic lights....so before the traffic moves on the other side....I turn right. I'm now worried about the bottom of the hill on Parham by Robbie's school. I see lots of headlights coming toward me, and come to find out it was okay. :)
I make it the 2 miles to Woodman, the "circling" of my neighborhood continuing....I turn right on Woodman, get to the light at Hungary (the other side of that lake) and go straight. It's real dark ahead....real real dark. I worry about the creek just before the road I want to turn on. I tell God, "it would be great to see a set of headlights about now coming this way...", and about 10 seconds later, here they come. :)
I turn left on Terry, feeling confident---but there's one more river to cross. About halfway down Terry, we hit another pond. My attitude now is "nothing is stopping me NOW"...so we proceed, and make it. Right turn to Purcell, right turn to Tavern Way, and home NEVER looked so good.
I took a moment in the car to repose, realized that my beloved 1988 Cougar, bought from my Mama in 1998, had been "carried" through, with Mama watching the whole time. I burst into tears. I was once again reminded why I don't want to let go of that car until it absolutely cannot run anymore.....
I've spent the rest of the evening watching the news, completely amazed at the video of downtown Richmond. Underneath the I-95 bridge in downtown is a place called "Shockoe Bottom". It's literally a valley between two large hills, one holding the financial district, and, to the east, the historic community of Church Hill, where I once worked at the legendary WRVA studio. I'd be stuck there tonight if I still worked at 22nd and Grace.
Between the two "hills", there's nowhere for the water to go. Reports from eyewitnesses trying to get in their cars and leave the area said within 20 minutes, the waters raced into the streets so quickly, it inundated their cars. Some waded back to the building, others just stood there and watched their cars be swept away. One man interviewed on TV said all he owned was in his car, which was by then probably in the James River.
We saw a lady rescued from her Porsche on I-95 downtown where the old Belvidere Toll Plaza once stood at the bottom of that hill, now home for a collected gathering of trillions of raindrops. Elsewhere on 95, what looked like a truck with a cherrypicker had become stuck, maybe trying to rescue someone, and the two people in the cherrypicker had to be rescued.
Then the topper....the Powhite Parkway is a major thoroughfare from the near west end to the southside of Richmond. Just after you cross the James River bridge on the Powhite, you come to a toll plaza, about a mile after the bridge, I guess. Halfway to the toll plaza, the road disappears in the recently created sea. Cars actually had to turn around, and GO THE WRONG WAY down the Parkway to get out of the danger zone and figure out a way to go somewhere...anywhere......
In the end, as you saw on the above map posted from our NBC affiliate, areas received anywhere from 6 to 14 inches of rain. Yes, 14 inches. Note now, in my part of town, it didn't start raining until around 1pm.
By 8pm, Hanover, to the north of us (thus the rain started there later...), had 10 inches. 4.23 inches of the rain fell in ONE HOUR, from 6 to 7pm, or, around the time, I'm driving home.....
The forecast when we started the day said maybe an inch of rain today, maybe an inch tonight....with a period of heavy rain. Nobody saw this coming. This was more rain than what we got from Floyd (1999) and Isabel (2003) COMBINED. It has been an historic day in Richmond, Virginia that literally came out of nowhere.
More coverage, go to our newspaper's web site.
My thanks and praise to God through Christ Jesus, who saw me through, arguably, the worst driving experience of my life. And it was supposed to be my day off........
So, the kids are staying close, and now, just after midnight, I'm typing while the kids are sacked out on the living room floor, not wanting to leave Mom and Dad, and Mom's on the couch catching zz's.
The rain has ended, the receding has begun. This day, though, will long be remembered, and the clean up begins at daybreak. Thank God I do NOT have to deliver newspapers in the morning!!!!!
AND, in some "non-liquid" news:
--LOVED Rudy Guliani's speech tonight, the parts I saw when not watching flood coverage. I thought he went a little long, but otherwise, it was great.
--There were idiots calling our ABC affiliate actually mad they took off the Tennessee/Dallas pre-season football game to show flood coverage. Let's see....meaningless exhibition game versus mandatory evacuations due to a possible dam burst in Chesterfield County....what do YOU think a TV station should do?
--I could really get into another Wendy's Double w/cheese, plain otherwise, right now...the one at lunch rocked!
Finally----I told the kids when I got home tonight, it wouldn't have surprised me if I had found Nemo trying to get home tonight. :)
Hug the ones you love; I learned again today, you never know what tomorrow may bring.
Rob
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