h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Remember the great Austin flood of '01? I certainly do. It happened on a Thursday, which was also my day off. The following day, Friday, I was scheduled to go in. It began raining around breakfast time. On the previous Monday we got a soft drink machine installed at the store.

Today is Thursday. It's my day off. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to work. Mrs Gosho and I were awoken this morning at around 6.30am by an almighty thunder crash. It's breakfast time and it's raining very heavily - it's forecast to do so all day, and we're under a flash flood watch which could very easily be upgraded to a flash flood warning.

And on Monday we got a soft drink machine installed at the store

Flash flood warning now

So far, it's all circumstantial, all coincidence.

What's different is also significant:

You live in a different place now.
It's not the same time of year.
You aren't dealing with any hurricanes.

The store is still in an area that *could* flood, given enough rain in a short enough period of time.

You didn't get flooded out at home did you? It was just the store, right?

I saw that huge system on the radar this morning - figured it was in your area

Paul this is the same system expected to head up the coast over the weekend, raining on our snow covered frozen ground.

I've heard about it.

Could be rain, could be snow.

Ho, hum.

February 2003 is already the snowiest
month in the history of Boston, and
it's not even over yet....

Hang onto your hat then...


A friend told me today that this snowstorm was predicted in some almanac with amazing accuracy.

The same almanac has predicted an even bigger snowstorm for early March.

What good will it do to worry about it?
If it comes, it comes.
Duct tape and plastic won't stop it from coming.
If it coats the whole East coast, we'll all be in the same boat.

A lot of storms veer out to sea before they get to New England.
An almanac might be right about one storm, and wrong
about the next. (Checks snow shovels just in case, though)

Yeah, I know, almanacs are iffy at best.

I'm just not looking forward to days of shoveling out again, so I hope the prediction is wrong.

I really wasn't worried about it anyway, only reporting what I heard.

Then we both agree that we hope the
prediction is wrong.

Yes, it was the store which was flooded last time, and yes we've moved to a different apartment - this one is not quite so elevated as the previous one. A rather worrying pond begins to form on the grass not far from our door when it rains like this

We've had 4" of rain in downtown Austin during the last 24 hours, and that would have all been since around 6am today. It's eased up a lot in the last hour... in fact it's stopped raining altogether, but the radar shows more on its way up from the southwest, and even more severe rainfall is forecast for tomorrow

Oh.

In that case, I'll keep my fingers crossed
soewverythiungf wiullk bve akll right for yuou.

Doiesnb't helkpo m,y typing, thgough.

See, if you'd all come visit me...

Gosho

That's ok Paul - cross your eyes instead

Hello Amy We haven't bumped into each other for a long time. How are you?

Preggie-wise, I'm fine, but I've got a cold And the meet that I'm organizing for July is coming along quite well, even if I've no idea if I can go, because of the timing (venue is a festival that takes place a week after my due date...)

I know you and Mrs Gosho likely couldn't come, but... A813061

Probably not - we're in one of those 'living paycheque to paycheque' phases right now > I think I've got a cold too - I have that scratchy feeling you get at the back of the nose when one starts

Well, the rain pretty much fizzled out yesterday afternoon, but it was raining very hard when we woke up about an hour ago - it's stopped for the time being. PLenty more on the radar though. I think I'm going to take my little NOAA weather tranny to work with me today.

Yeah, I definately understand living paycheck to paycheck... But if things change in time, I'd love to meet you both

Sure hope the rain moves out of your area soon!

The leading edge of the storm system is inching closer to us - with our snow covered everything!

Hopefully, the snow will soak up a lot of the rain so that it doesn't all just run off and flood here...

Well, I hope it all works out OK anyway... best of luck!

Duct tape, plastic, and windex will solve all your problems.
If it can't be solved by duct tape, plastic, and windex,
then it (a.) isn't a problem, or (b.) is someone else's
problem.

*whispers to Paul--you forgot the WD40...*