Flash Flooding in Madison
flooding off spring street
Originally uploaded by Wisp.
Big, black, clouds over Madison at noon and then the flood began. We were to meet a friend on campus and drive over to Monroe St for lunch at the Dardanelles. Driving down University Avenue was hazardous with the rain coming down in sheets and the flooding on the sides of the road. We had to drive through the water in the bus lane to turn right on Henry Mall. We picked up A and drove down Linden to Charter St. At the corner of Charter and University Wayfinder said look at the rapids. Water was running down off Bascom Hill into University Avenue river.
We drove forward on Charter to Dayton and took Dayton to Randall and then onto Monroe St. by Camp Randall. Driving conditions were bad, visibility at about 10%, we couldn't see any curbs.
We all agree we had not seen rain like this before in all our collective years in Madison. Sure there have been flash floods before but the rain lasted longer and was more intense than we had seen before. Best estimates were 2.5 inches in 45 minutes. We managed to inch our way up Monroe St. get turned around and parked almost in front of the restaurant. By 1:30 when we drove back to campus there was no standing water in the streets.
We drove within a block of where the flood was on Spring St. through the Park St. via duct at 2:30 and there was no standing water in the road under the railroad bridge. Amazing. We did see several big hoses pumping water out of basements and water being pumped out of Meriter Hospital.
We made it through all the water we had to drive through. We give thanks that we have a Subaru Forrester that has high ground clearance.
Wayfinder met with the hematologist this afternoon. His hemoglobin and hematocrit are creeping up. By this I mean the scores are improving each time by really small increments. They are all below average. The Dr. suggested continuing the shots for 3 months to really evaluate if they are helping. So right now two more shots and blood work in 4 weeks and another Dr. visit for Wayfinder. We are cautiously optimistic at this point that the 3 major factors leading to Wayfinder's severe anemia have been addressed.