Stewart; locust; too funny. Rain for the last 30 days not funny at all. Only 10 more to go.

Looks like we're done here. Most everything soaked right in around our place. Not that much run-off and the dirt and gravel roads are not muddy in the least.

Good luck this weekend Bonnie.

If only I could remember what a " cubit" was I would have started the Ark this morning. 65 mm of the wet stuff overnight and its still raining !!Keep getting this wierd thought that God has realised im a " Manager " and is punishing me !!
StewartAA

Finally, we have sun.
For some interesting video of what happened here, go to WXVT.com. The first six clips show part of our coverage.
A little comic relief is in the second one, "Rowing Across Cypress Lane."
The street is in the middle of a cypress preserve. The area is almost prehistoric. I like to call it "The Swamp." The view is from U.S. Highway 82. Off screen to the right are some homes, one with a pond out front. Off screen to the left is the preserve that has a kiosk, a walking trail and signs describing some of the plants and animals there.
I was driving around the south part of town, shooting random video of anything I thought was interesting. This part of Cypress Lane dips about 6-8 feet as it passes between the preserve and the house owner's pond. Normally, it's well above water. In fact, consecutive summers of drought have left The Swamp dry for months at a time.
Anyway, I'm watching these pickups slosh through the water and one guy in a small car stop, think about it and back up until he can see somebody else go ahead of him. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw some movement off to the right so, without taking the camera off the road, I glanced over and saw a boat.
I'll let the video describe what happens next.


Note: If you do watch any of the videos, you might see an ad for a local doctor. Let it run. The flood video will immediately follow.

Stewart, you crack me up! Well, our town of Centreville, VA (about 20 miles west of Washington, DC) got 6 inches of rain on Saturday. The creek that runs behind my neighborhood completely overflowed its banks and flooded the street.

This storm made me realize why I like cats instead of dogs (no, not because it was raining cats & dogs). I am not happy walking our 74 pound, 8 month old Golden Retriever in a tropical storm. He needs to be litter trained!

*sigh*
Now we have Ike to worry about.
Is it just me or is this the first time we've had 4 consecutive named storms hit the states?
I know there have been years when 3 or more struck, but they're usually spread out over the alphabet. But we've had F, G and H, with I on the way. Has this ever happened before that anybody knows of?

Woody- I think I saw something about that on Weather channel, but wasn't paying close attention....it is the first time there were four named storms in the Atlantic basin at once in a long time.
Will have to look it up. Couldn't find it on weather channel.
Did stumble across this, tons of info but no record info.
Wiki hurricanes Atlantic page

Looks like Ike will be slamming into Texas, then turning northeast fairly soon, so being on the east side of the storm means more rain and tornadoes for LA, ARK, amd MISS....let us know how it goes there.

As the topic says: Here we go again.
Maybe this one will weaken (like they're supposed to) before it reaches us. Our streets and roads are dry, and the drainage canals are near normal level, but the streams they feed into are still swollen.

We've been preparing for a hurricane over and over again here in orlando, but it never gets here, thankfully -- not since we got hit 3 times a row with Charlie, Jeanne and Ivan back in 2004.

In my church, I spent a lot of time dividing up our whole geographical area into about 10 emergency preparedness areas. Each area has a captain and an assistant. Each person in the area is supposed to call in to their captain before the storm and tell where they will be staying. After the storm, they are to report damage, power outages, medical needs, water shortages, flooding etcetera, and each area has an equipment list. Plus we have the headquarters standing by ready to usher in trucks of food, water, equipment and volunteers in case anything goes wrong.

We actually tested the emergency reponse plan during Tropical Storm Faye because all the schools shut down, and it went OK. My hope is I never have to actually use it and make it work.

In Orlando, I understand that if you want to replace your roof, you have to do all this extra work -- including fastening the roof to the walls somehow, and a lot of other structural improvements to make it withstand heavy winds....

Well, Ike gave us a couple of days of good, strong breezes. We were under tornado watches one night, but thankfully didn't get any rain.
Things are starting to dry up after Gustav, but the flooding we got from it has caused another problem: sewer line breaks. In a few spots in town, sewage has backed up into the streets, but the city is working on it.

We still have many piles of fallen tree parts, and some of those piles are huge. They may be with us for many months because I do not see how some of them can be picked up. As always, time will tell. Peace and goodwill.