(Above) Normally a 6-foot wide trickle and almost a non-existent stream bed in summer, Cross Creek became the Red Sea today after 8 hours of torrential rains.
I'VE BEEN IN A LOT OF HEAVY RAINS IN MY DAY. It's been unseasonably rainy in the South over the last14 months so there's been a lot to compare it with recently. But I gotta tell you, today's full-fledged monsoon truly takes the cake. Creeks are rising everywhere fast. People are stranded. Restaurants and stores have closed early. Saturday night plans have been cancelled, including mine, and people are holed up waiting for the next wave of heavy rain, forecast for tonight into tomorrow.
The last time we saw rainfall and flooding like this was in 1979 when Hurricane Frederic blew inland and dumped 8 inches of rain in one afternoon. Mill Creek was a major mess, and all the smaller creeks and tributaries were out of their banks as well.
ReplyDelete(Is that Richland Creek in your pictures?)
Today I went to a book signing (Lee Smith) in Green Hills and had to make 6 detours driving home to avoid flooded roads.
Stay dry and safe!
Fraydna, I heard Green Hills was quite inundated by this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThe top pic is Cross Creek before it goes under Harding Rd. near Krogers and into Richland. The bottom two are of Richland Creek from the new pedestrian viaduct behind the new Publix in Belle Meade.
BTW, Lee Smith and I were classmates in boarding school in Richmond, Virginia, though I've totally lost touch with her, since she and her then husband Jim Seay were at Vanderbilt (weren't they quite academic liberals?), divorced and moved away. She's a most talented and productive writer! And I hope she's well.