Day 152: Storms and Flooding

Whoa.

I know I've been asking for spring to arrive, especially after the winter we had, but today takes the cake.  As we all know, with spring comes the arrival of rain, rain, and more rain.  Well last night and into today, we got hit with that storm front that made it's way across the country and devastated the Midwest and the southern states. 

Around 10:00 last night, the lightning started.  No thunder until later in the night.  And then the rain started.  Buckets and buckets and buckets of rain.  It sounded like someone had a pressure washer aimed at my windows all night long.

When I got up in the morning I clicked on the local news and the entire Doppler radar area was covered in dark green, yellow, orange, or red.  Not colors you want to see first thing in the morning.  My family and I went on through our morning getting ready for school.  My husband took my daughter, who is recovering from a sprained ankle, up to the bus stop. My son and I finished our morning routine and were about ready to walk out the door only to get a phone call telling us that one of the major roads near my home was flooded.  And school would be on a two-hour delay due to the flooding there and other parts of the area.   The middle schools, which miraculously already had some students on their way to the buildings (my daughter being one of them), were on a liberal tardy policy.  That basically means that any students who were held up by detours would not be marked late.

(In 10 years of teaching, I think I've only had two other days where school was cancelled or delayed due to flooding.  That was the year Hurricane Isabel hit the middle Atlantic states.  I lived in Baltimore at the time, and a good portion of the area near my school--including my husband's office--was flooded.  But here?  Definitely NOT your everyday occurrence!)

Anyhow, while I waited at home for the water to subside a bit (the rain finally stopped), no less than four tornado warnings crawled across the screen for surrounding counties.  I don't know how my county was missed, but I'm not complaining.

Okay, I get it.  Spring is here. 

It just needs to tone itself down a bit!