August 12 Flooding

By Kendall Kroesen

If you have been following North American weather, you might have noticed some severe weather events in Indiana, including eastern-central Indiana where we live. Some of you have written to ask how we're doing. We're fine, but there was a lot of damage from flooding in the region. 

Here in Richmond, rain, sometimes heavy, started around 3am in the morning on Wednesday August 12. It lasted about 14 hours, until about 5pm. 

During that time over 8 inches of rain fell. Near our house storm drains filled, creeks rose, large puddles extended across roadways, and traffic was interrupted. 

The Whitewater River, which flows south through Richmond, roared over roads and destroyed a pedestrian foot bridge. In July and August, between storms, a stream gauge south of town has marked the height of flow at about half a foot. Two earlier storms, one in July and one in early August, rose the flow to about 7 feet. This storm brought it to almost 14 feet. 


 

Fortunately our house is on high ground and we didn't have to go anywhere. The dogs felt a bit cooped up. We tried to walk them once when we thought the rain had stopped but then it started again mid-walk! Our desert dogs are suspicious about anything involving wetness. 

Dolce in her preferred dry and snug location.

Other places a few miles east of us apparently got closer to a foot of rain. Interstate 70 flooded and washed out. A photo of the damage can be seen here. It was repaired surprisingly quickly and the highway is open again as of today (August 14). 

In the same area, west of us, low-lying homes and businesses flooded, many streets and highways were closed in places with water running across. This created many dangerous situations and there were many rescues of people from cars and homes. A TV news story from August 12 covers much of the emerging situation. The first area described in an on-site report, Cambridge City, is less than 15 miles west of us:

Many other parts of eastern Indiana had flooding too. In Muncie the White River ran above flood stage. 

Fortunately, Thursday dawned bright and sunny here, and only a little rain fell in the evening. Mary Beth had a routine medical appointment early in the day and we got there without any problem. But on the way back we encountered a lot of the semi-truck traffic that would normally have been on the Interstate at that point. Today is Friday and it is raining lightly again, with mostly light rain forecast through Saturday night. 

I think the worst of it is over and the neighbors have decided that an ark won't be necessary!

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