flash flood

This was my street about three hours ago. The power had just gone out, and it had only been raining for 10 or 15 minutes. I had just been lighting the candles on my porch, getting ready to watch the storm...

That was when I saw the water start rising in the street. By the time I made it out there with my camera, the water was over the curb and halfway up my shins.

The good news: no water in the basement, and no fallen trees. I'd gotten the car in the garage just minutes before the hail (that's a whole other story - but let's just say, it would have been a lot easier with another set of hands. An electric garage door opener is now much higher on my priority list.)

Some of my neighbors weren't so lucky:

The tree is also blocking one of the main roads between my house and the freeway. Which explains why my street has been a lot busier than usual tonight - although, I hear the freeway was flooded, too, so maybe it's just as well that people couldn't get to it.

All in all, a pretty exciting evening here. I got to meet a lot of my neighbors when we were all out looking at the tree and cleaning up fallen branches in our own yards. The power was out for about three hours, so I've been enjoying the late evening breeze on my front porch, watching bugs on the ceiling in the flickering candlelight and listening to the last drops of rain.

Kind of awesome, actually.