# We got a little wet! Thanks, Gaston! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377 "2004-08-31T05:38:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/1 "2004-08-31T05:38:40Z")
[Yikes!](http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20040830-113955-2152r.htm) I was lucky, my area didn’t flood and power remained on, but it was pretty bad elsewhere: > [@](#): > > “It looks like rapids outside our building,” said Nick Baughan, who was stranded with about 20 other people on the second floor of the Bottoms Up pizza restaurant. “All of our cars have floated away.” > > The first floor of the restaurant was under 10 to 12 feet of water, he said. > > The National Weather Service received reports of 10 to 14 inches of rain in the Richmond area. Some floating cars rammed into buildings, including Bottoms Up. There were also at least two tornadoes, and over 90,000 people were without power. What a mess! ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/2 "2004-08-31T12:11:00Z")
The area around 14th-18th is, my hubman informs me, completely closed down today. It’s unreal out there. I don’t think **anyone** expected the kind of downpour we had. Rumor has it that we exceeded our high rainfall day by _five inches_…any idea if that’s true? ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/3 "2004-08-31T12:23:37Z")
It is \*raining buckets \* this morning at the Jersey Shore. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/4 "2004-08-31T16:11:03Z")
> [@Hamadryad](#): > > Rumor has it that we exceeded our high rainfall day by _five inches_…any idea if that’s true? I heard this too, and I wouldn’t doubt it’s true. They’re reporting on the news that at least five deaths have been confirmed in the Richmond area, and they’re showing pictures of the damage. There are condemned buildings, cars on top of other cars, and still thousands without power. It’s unbelievable. This morning on my way to get coffee, I passed a construction site. There was an empty 5-gallon pail there that had over a foot of water in it–all from yesterday’s rain! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/5 "2004-08-31T16:28:46Z")
Interesting storm here. Lots of rain, comparable to a “typical” hurricane in water amount – but relatively little wind activity. It resembled a downpour-type non-tropical storm more than the standard model tropical storm in what it did. Our yard has fairly good drainage but not a whole lot of absorption – and we had standing water around about 60% of the property for about eight hours after Gaston headed north. Almost no thunder-and-lightning before or during Gaston proper, but a moderate thunderstorm from the trailing rainbands as it left the area. The Raleigh-Durham area, just west of us, got unusual amounts of rain. Several accidents, including somehow two cars went into skids and collided head-on, on a divided highway with a median – and they ended up on pavement. Standing water on many streets, some of it newscast-level deep. Some nasty stuff also hit I-95, south and east of us. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/6 "2004-08-31T16:41:46Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Almost no thunder-and-lightning before or during Gaston proper, but a moderate thunderstorm from the trailing rainbands as it left the area. Ours was the exact opposite. We had fairly heavy thunderstorms as Gaston moved into the area–at least two tornadoes touched down to the north and west of me. I imagine the rotation of the storm would account for the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/7 "2004-08-31T16:50:39Z")
No one pours like Gaston Floods your floors like Gaston Sends cars floating around the outdoors like Gaston His deluge will keep all of your sewers from draining My what a storm that Gaston! Goodness gracious, what a mess. I hope all of you dry up soon, without too much damage. I ought to call my grandparents on the Jersey coast and see how they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/8 "2004-08-31T19:28:51Z")
I knew something was up when the rain started to fall sideways travelling on 360 yesterday afternoon on my way to the gym. I thought, “Hmm…better forego the workout and get home.” Nope. Sorry. Try again. There are 4 ways to get to my house - all of them were blocked with fallen trees and high water. The entrance to my subdivision lies at the confluence of a creek and the emergency spillway for a 10 acre pond. I just went down and measured the silt on the trees - it was 7 feet off the ground. Good thing I though better of it and didn’t try to wade it in the night. Luckily, we’ve kept our power and didn’t have any flooding at the house. However, ALL of the mulch and composted manure that I had just this weekend put around the flower border has washed down the hill. I ought to have a great stand of grass at the bottom of the hill next year. “The Lord said to Noah, Build an arky, arky…” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/9 "2004-08-31T19:32:37Z")
I forgot to mention that one of the tornados struck Tunstall which is where I live. The road just up from mine had trees twisted off at the tops, power poles sheered in half, and at one house that I stopped in last night trying to get home, the garage roof, pontoon boat, and trampoline were nowhere to be seen. Said the very nice man that let me in to try and call home, in that dry, understated way that only salt of the earth, country-types can have - “Yup, looks like we may have a spell of rain.” ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/10 "2004-08-31T23:35:40Z")
According to my news portal, 5 people died due to that flooding. ☹ Glad you guys are (relatively) okay. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/11 "2004-09-01T16:09:40Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > According to my news portal, 5 people died due to that flooding. It’s up to seven today, according to the local TV news. What an awful thing. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-got-a-little-wet-thanks-gaston/262377/12 "2004-09-02T01:17:27Z")
Glad all of you made it through. A high school classmate lives in Richmond and another just got grazed by Charley in Florida and still another was from Ft. Walton Beach, FL where the first one went near. Is it something I did?