FLOODING!
August 12th, 2009 at 6:43 pm by Cheryl Nelson under Weather
Slow-moving thunderstorms caused areas of flash flooding across parts of the Southside this afternoon and this evening. Rainfall rates in these storms were 1-5″ per hour. This amount of rain in a short period of time caused the Eastbound lanes of the Downtown Tunnel along I-264 to close. We received many reports of “floating cars” in Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. A weather watcher in Edenton, NC reported 4.75″ of rain in just 1 hour! More rain is in the forecast for tonight, so flash flooding is still possible in areas that receive heavy rain.
Please don’t drive your vehicle through water of unknown depth. 6-12″ of water is enough to float some vehicles. Flooding can also cause your vehicle to stall out which can obviously damage your vehicle if you try to re-start it while in water. Be safe!
Many weather photos were sent to the Super Doppler 10 Weather Center today. Thank you! We appreciate it. Here is a sample:
From Melissa in Norfolk
Norfolk State University
Downtown Norfolk
From Lisa on Washington St in Portsmouth
Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson
Tags: cheryl nelson, flash flood, flooding, Weather
WAVY/Fox 43 Meteorologist
being a retired police officer from the city of norfolk, i have often wondered if drivers ever pay attention to the signs posted around the city “subject to flooding by rain” the same locations flood everytime we get rain like yesterday and have been flooding like yesterday for over 30 yrs. when john or don say heavy showers and you see it on the bottom of the tv screen, HELLO you better pay attention unless you are driving a boat!
How do we see all the photos submitted by the loyal WAVY viewers?
I was stuck on 264 for 4 hours yesterday. I got on 264 at Portsmouth Blvd heading east at 5:00 and at 9:00 I finally reached the entrance to the downtown tunnel, which was closed. I called 911 to see if I should get off 264 and was told, everything was flooded and to stay on. They routed us through a VDOT parking lot over to a street that had a yield sign which I had to yield to and then I get up to County Street in Portsmouth and there is a fully functioning traffic light that I had to stop for. There was a police car there but he was not directing traffic or blocking one lane so that all these people can run this light in order to get them off 264. After taking a left so that I could go to the next street and get back on 264 west and get to 64 and get home to Virginia Beach there was another fully functioning traffic light that I had to wait for. I can understand the suddeness of the storm and even the pumps not working in the tunnel (sort of) but to have no police presence directing traffic is a pity. This traffic could have been cleard a lot sooner if the vehicles did not have to go through a yield sign and two traffic lights. 4 hours is too long to sit in a vehicle, its not healthy.
Here’s the link to see some of the photos and videos of the Southside AND Hampton flooding.
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wavy_heavy_storms_move_through_20090812