The aftermath.

"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
08/16/2016 at 14:13 • Filed to: None

I took a ride to do a welfare check on my wife’s uncle this morning. He’s fine. I saw a few interesting things along the way.

Look closely. That bit of white is an SUV sitting in the ditch alongside the road. The Toyota is also abandoned, but at least it is still sitting on the road. I’m guessing he hydrolocked the engine and left it there. I’m not sure when they will start clearing the roads, but he better make haste or someone will move it for him.

This Magnum was parked there before the flood. At one point, the water was up to the windows, so it’s going to be a total loss.

On a related note, a friend of a friend had his boat stolen. Here’s what he posted:

After helping people in need all day Saturday and Sunday and preparing to go back out Monday my boat was stolen of my truck in my driveway Sunday night. License number on trailer - D837746. Number on side of boat - LA-9747-BT

Maybe screenshot these numbers and keep an eye out if possible. Thank you.

Let’s hope they find the bastards.

DISCUSSION (15)

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/16/2016 at 14:14

The Toyota must have run out of gas.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/16/2016 at 14:24

So how is all of that water supposed to drain? This seems like it will take a while to clean up. I cant imagine what its like to live down there. Like sure we had Sandy here, but that pales in comparison. Events like this are why I was so annoyed about people complaining that they had to wait a few hours to get gas.

Ash78, voting early and often > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/16/2016 at 14:29

It’s a flow rate issue. It almost all drains into the Mississippi and into the Gulf, but when the ground gets too soaked and the rivers/creeks are all at max capacity, you can’t do anything. Imagine running a tub with the drain open, but your spigot is really strong and it still fills the tub slowly. The spigot is the rainfall, so once it stops, you mostly just have to wait. That's how most floods work, at least when you're above sea level (Katrina was a different story — the water filled up and had nowhere to go, it had to be pumped out).

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Ash78, voting early and often
08/16/2016 at 14:37

Yeah, that was the part I was concerned of. I just saw Louisiana so I wasn’t sure how the geography differed. That makes sense though to me.

Ash78, voting early and often > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/16/2016 at 14:41

It’s still the flattest state in the country, which doesn’t help — all the water flows very slowly, even in normal conditions. Think about all those stereotypical bayou and swamp scenes from the movies — those are all moving water at the end of the river delta. Very, very slow water.

The Dummy Gummy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/16/2016 at 14:42

You were annoyed at people waiting a few hours to get gas > to get home to get their generators running > to get heat for their family? Maybe you were in a spot that wasn’t hit that bad by Sandy, but Sandy was devastating. This disaster is devastating too.

Are we really starting to dimish how terrible people had it because another disaster may have been worse?

The Dummy Gummy > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/16/2016 at 14:44

Hope your friend finds your boat. Hope for everything to clear up quickly for everyone down there. That is awful. I’ve been reading a lot of articles about the damage done and it is heartbreaking. Stay safe.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/16/2016 at 14:50

Contrary to Ash’s post, none of this drains into the Mississippi River. The Amite and Comite rivers drain into lake Maurepas which drains into lake Pontchartrain which is open to the Gulf. Areas north of us experienced direct flooding due to rainfall. Our area is experienced minor flooding from the rainfall which drained off fairly quickly. The secondary flooding is due to backwater flow from all the water coming from upstream. The creek in my neighborhood started flowing backward as the Amite pushed floodwater up its tributaries.

All of the water in my street came out of the storm drains. The rains were already past and it was sunny outside when the water started rising.

Ash is correct in his analogy about the tub. The tributaries help mitigate the flood by accepting some of the flood water, making the peak height lower downstream. Unfortunately, there was more water than any of the systems, natural or otherwise, could handle.

In contrast, the Mississippi River is constrained by the levees. Without allowing the water to move into surrounding areas, the pulse of water just gets higher and faster. When this happened in 2011, I was part of the force monitoring the levees. I stood on a 30+ foot tall levee with water at the top and the levee on the other side over a mile away.

The cleanup is going to be massive. Some parishes (counties) are estimating 90% of their housing was flooded. Some will be total losses. Many will be a gut a refinish job. Many of the schools and other public buildings were flooded. We are already looking at setting up temporary buildings or shuttling kids to other campuses. That is if we have enough buses. Much of our local fleet was caught in the flood.

Yeah, it’s a mess.

TheRealBicycleBuck > The Dummy Gummy
08/16/2016 at 14:51

Thanks.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/16/2016 at 15:06

We know how you guys feel. May 2010 got us here in Nashville. Hopefully everyone there can pull together like we managed to and get you all back on your feet.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Ash78, voting early and often
08/16/2016 at 15:29

Most of the areas affected drain into the Amite which flows into Lake Maurepas. Those areas to the west of us drain into the Atchafalaya river.

Strangely enough, most of the drainage has been directed away from the Mississippi since they built big levees to keep the river in place. Getting water over those levees requires pumps, so many places either dredged the existing bayous to change their flow direction or cut new canals to flow where they wanted.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > The Dummy Gummy
08/16/2016 at 15:52

Sorry, I know that there were some areas hit hard by Sandy. I do live in NJ so I know people who lost their houses and such. I meant more so the people who actually weren’t facing hardship but were acting as if they were. I am saying we should diminish the “terrible” that people had because they couldn’t watch their favorite TV show for a few days, or had to wait a while to fill their 4th car up with gas, etc. Those people really bothered me.

The Dummy Gummy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/16/2016 at 16:00

Ah, sorry. My mistake on what you were saying. I get it. We lost a home and helped a lot of people who had lost even more. Some people have talked Sandy down like it wasn’t bad. That few month’s was terrible.. that year was terrible. I feel for anyone who has to go through a tragedy like this.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > The Dummy Gummy
08/16/2016 at 16:12

The problem was that it was so localized. So I think people tend to not understand that it could be so bad. I mean, I am in Brick which parts of were totally destroyed. But where I am like 5 miles from the ocean, we only lost power for a couple days and a few downed trees blocking some roads. Whereas disasters like Katrina or what is going on now in Lousiana are so widespread that more people notice it. But yeah at school up in Hoboken, the city was literally under water, or friends homes up towards Sandy Hook lost, and coworkers in Manahawkin got it real bad. I honestly thought the pictures on the internet were fakes for a few days because it looked unreal. Its still wild to go to Seaside and remember how different it looked a few years ago.

Ash78, voting early and often > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/16/2016 at 16:28

I forgot about all the levees around there...drainage engineering is crazy. You solve one big problem, you create a bunch of smaller ones.