Wow, what a Monday! We had a little drizzle throughout the night, and that combined with the sprinkling the next morning made for an exciting, wet, and adventurous day. Here are just a few pictures of the water around our apartment.
If you can see in the lower right hand corner of the picture there is a sign that is supposed to say "Camping Is Prohibited"
This is the bayou next to our apartments. It is about a quarter of a mile from where were live, and when the water levels got to high for the bayou the water backed up and created a water way of the streets around our apartment. These photos were taken a few hours after the rain had stopped and the city was started to drain the bayou.
These two photos (above and below) are the route I take while running in the morning. Guess I won't be on that trail any time soon . . .
As scary as this may look, it was kinda fun. My friend Stephanie and I had a little adventure. Because Bruce had to go off-campus in the middle of the day for vision screenings he took the car, which left me stranded at home (which I usually don't mind). However, this particular morning Stephanie and I decided to hang out with our friend Nikki who just had a baby. Stephanie was kind enough to pick me up (not knowing that she would be driving up a river). I waited for about an hour before she called and said that there was a puddle in the road that she was trying to get around and she would call when she got here. After about two hours of driving around trying to find a road that wasn't flooded that would get to our apartment, we agreed that it would be best if I walked to her. I pulled on my red rain boots, zipped up my jacket, and hid my cell phone inside my jacket. I opened the front door to embark on my adventure.
Initially, I wasn't impressed with the current drizzle from the clouds. It wasn't until I got to the street that I saw the damage that "drizzle" had done. The first step into the street felt as if I was wading though a stream. I tried to take slow and calculated steps so water wouldn't splash up into my boots. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a guy run through the river on our street with nothing but tennis shoes and jeans on. When I made it to the other side of the street I noticed about 15 cars parked in the grocery store's raised parking lot just sitting there waiting out the flooded streets. But I trudged on through the rain.
At the next intersection the water had risen past the side walk and was starting to flood the shopping center's parking lot. Looking around I saw only trucks and raised SUVs braving the drive through the river-street (little did they know that it only got deeper from there.) I chose to cross the road about 20 feet from the intersection, where the water wasn't as deep. On the first step into the road-river I sank into water up to my calves, with about 3 inches to spare before my highwater boots went under. But I made it to the other side without getting water in my boots. Pretty talented, I know!
Just before crossing the bridge over the bayou I walked by two city buses that had stopped in the middle of the road and refused to continue their route through the water. The passengers were being kicked off and into the rain. Crossing the bridge over the bayou, I peeked over the edge to see that the water had risen to the top arch of the bridge. Floating leaves and trash were piling up against the bridge.
The second intersection crossing was slightly easier, except when my boot got stuck and I almost fell. I had finally made it to Stephanie, and just had to cross the street . . . There were 4 cars stopped in the middle of the road, another car driving on the wrong side of the road, and several more trucks haphazardly driving through the river-street intersection. I cautiously crossed the river-street trying to not get splashed by the passing trucks. My reward was a warm car and good friends to hang out with!
Here are some more crazy photos of the Houston highways, taken the same day by local journalists.
This is the highway we take to get to our favorite Greek restaurant. Not the over pass. The flooded road the guy is canoeing down.
Downtown Houston; looks like traffic is gonna be a little backed up.
This is the worst! I would've had to abandon my car and watch it flood! (There are sunken cars under there)
