Bill Lazzell
I live in Northbrook Edition. On Saturday afternoon, I was helping a neighbor one street east of me pull some fence posts out of the ground from the previous Tuesday’s wind storm. We had just finished pulling the second post out and decided to take a break. My wife and his wife walked out into the driveway towards the street (we were in the back yard) and they came running back yelling to pull the car back in the driveway, there was water rushing down the street. I immediately took one look, then ran over to my street, it had just started coming down my street. It was a wall of water, about 1-2 feet tall rushing down the street about 20-30 miles an hour. At first, we were not sure what was going on, a main break? Sewers backing up? I took a few photos after I called 911 (they had no clue what was going on either, I reported we were flooding). Everyone I think was in shock at first. When it started coming in the yard, I gathered my family, got the ladder from the garage to get on the roof. After gathering up medicines and getting the pets ready, we started putting stuff on the roof. I was on the front step watching it rise when a father and his 4 kids came by struggling in the current. I could see the smaller ones were having trouble, so I told them to come in and get in the house. We helped all of them in the house, and then we went on the roof.
All this with no warning whatsoever. Sure we were in a flash flood watch, but our neighborhood NEVER floods.
The water rose from a curiosity to no way to get out within 20 minutes.
I do consider myself one of the lucky ones, the water did not come into the house. I had some damage, but not as much as others.
There are some photos at www.flickr.com/wlazzell
The fully thing is, that we had driven down to Haw Creek behind the addition not 2 hours earlier to take some pictures. We had no idea that the river would return the visit that afternoon.
Anyway, thanks to the many volunteers who risked their own lives to evacuate those who wished to leave (I stayed as the water started to recede). Thanks to the many volunteers who came and helped clean up in our neighborhood.
I live in Northbrook Edition. On Saturday afternoon, I was helping a neighbor one street east of me pull some fence posts out of the ground from the previous Tuesday’s wind storm. We had just finished pulling the second post out and decided to take a break. My wife and his wife walked out into the driveway towards the street (we were in the back yard) and they came running back yelling to pull the car back in the driveway, there was water rushing down the street. I immediately took one look, then ran over to my street, it had just started coming down my street. It was a wall of water, about 1-2 feet tall rushing down the street about 20-30 miles an hour. At first, we were not sure what was going on, a main break? Sewers backing up? I took a few photos after I called 911 (they had no clue what was going on either, I reported we were flooding). Everyone I think was in shock at first. When it started coming in the yard, I gathered my family, got the ladder from the garage to get on the roof. After gathering up medicines and getting the pets ready, we started putting stuff on the roof. I was on the front step watching it rise when a father and his 4 kids came by struggling in the current. I could see the smaller ones were having trouble, so I told them to come in and get in the house. We helped all of them in the house, and then we went on the roof.
All this with no warning whatsoever. Sure we were in a flash flood watch, but our neighborhood NEVER floods.
The water rose from a curiosity to no way to get out within 20 minutes.
I do consider myself one of the lucky ones, the water did not come into the house. I had some damage, but not as much as others.
There are some photos at www.flickr.com/wlazzell
The fully thing is, that we had driven down to Haw Creek behind the addition not 2 hours earlier to take some pictures. We had no idea that the river would return the visit that afternoon.
Anyway, thanks to the many volunteers who risked their own lives to evacuate those who wished to leave (I stayed as the water started to recede). Thanks to the many volunteers who came and helped clean up in our neighborhood.