Flooding

May started out with a heavy thunderstorm and two big downpours. After the first part of the storm had passed and it looked like things were clearing up, I went out to run some errands. By the time I was leaving the library, it was pouring down again. I needed to go to the market and when I turned on to the street where its located, I was faced with about 8 to 10 inches of water in the street. I've always heard you're not supposed to drive through standing water, but I had no choice. It was really hard to tell how deep it was, but I managed to make it to the parking lot of Sahara Mart where we do a lot of our grocery shopping.

The water was lapping up against the doors and I got my feet a little wet before going inside. When I was ready to checkout with my groceries, it looked like the water had gotten deeper and the store clerks were now directing people to leave through the rear emergency exit. I felt sorry for the employees as water was getting in under the front doors and they were furiously mopping, trying to keep it at bay. What they needed were some sand bags, but this cloudburst came so unexpectedly, I don't think anyone could have predicted this would happen. The situation was made worse by the fact that the city has been working on the storm drain system and I think some of the water's usual drainage routes were blocked.