narya ([info]narya) wrote in [info]davis_square,
@ 2008-06-24 18:03:00
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Entry tags:photo, weather

Be careful if you're planning to go anywhere tonight...
...and beware of Lake Cedar Street.





That's right near the intersection of Cedar St and Summer. (The people who got there before me said they called the city and the owners of the parked cars also showed up and moved them.)

Edited to add: Also, my roommate reports that Cherry St is a river and that Highland is also pretty bad (but not as bad as Cedar).

There are a few more pictures here but most of them are pretty bad quality.

Edited further to add: That picture was taken at about 5:45 (maybe a bit later). As of 7pm, the water appears to be pretty much gone and the road surface is visible again.


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[info]mperrotti76
2008-06-24 10:09 pm UTC (link)
WTF!? What caused that?

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[info]narya
2008-06-24 10:11 pm UTC (link)
Snarky response: the rain. (sorry, required)

More seriously: I am not sure. My neighbors (who have been around here much longer than I have) report that the storm drains there are always a little slow but that this is exceptional in their experience.

I just hope that the houses down there are ok.

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[info]lizzielizzie
2008-06-25 04:23 am UTC (link)
The weather folks did say later that some places got 1" of rain in 30-40 minutes. I think that could bung up any storm drain system...

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[info]mperrotti76
2008-06-24 10:13 pm UTC (link)
I know this. But I'm a hydrogeologist. I menat is there a lake or sriver near by? What would cause 3 feet of water just to appear like that in Camberville?

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[info]haptotrope
2008-06-24 10:19 pm UTC (link)
Its a basin of roads near the bottom of a huge hill... Its alot for the measly storm drain to handle the way it was coming down.

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[info]mperrotti76
2008-06-24 10:19 pm UTC (link)
I see.

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[info]haptotrope
2008-06-24 10:12 pm UTC (link)
HOLY SHIT! and THANK YOU! That's my bike commute home. I did ride through it two days ago, where it was a foot and a half deep, but that is way worse!

I'm guessing the stormdrain is blocked... but in 8 years of living here through some serious storms, I haven't seen that.

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[info]narya
2008-06-24 10:19 pm UTC (link)
I'm glad it was of actual use to someone. Best of luck on your commute - it does seem to be going down a little but not fast enough. The storm drain must have gotten well and truly clogged.

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[info]haptotrope
2008-06-24 10:24 pm UTC (link)
Maybe if the drainage connects to the construction at the bottom of the hill near Elm... maybe that is the root of the cause. Either way, the city of Somerville knows and should be "on it".

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[info]evilbunnymayhem
2008-06-24 10:18 pm UTC (link)
yeah, second that... I'd guess clogged storm drains from all the pollen an crap over the past few weeks... eesh.
Hope people are checking their basements for water....

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[info]ifotismeni
2008-06-24 10:21 pm UTC (link)
been having similar problems out in waltham as well. i have pictures of it x___x

are the drains not cleaned properly this year or something? it boggles the mind how the streets are flooding this badly.

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[info]_mattt
2008-06-24 10:41 pm UTC (link)
The storm drains can only handle so much flow, even when properly cleaned and sized. Engineers make a decision on how big to build the drains ($) by how likely they are to see a certain rainfall intensity (1in./h versus 1ft./hr). I don't know how likely it is that these drains are properly sized or maintained (for Somerville? not likely), but it is also highly likely that the rainfall intensity from this freak storm simply exceeded their drainage capacity.

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[info]ifotismeni
2008-06-24 10:42 pm UTC (link)
this happened in several locations in waltham yesterday on fairly new roads. it didn't seem to me like we got that much rain out there yesterday.

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[info]_mattt
2008-06-24 10:45 pm UTC (link)
We probably didn't get that much rain from this storm either -- it just rained really really really fast.

It's the rate at which it rains as much as how much rains. the fact that newer roads with (assumed) properly sized storm drains were overwhelmed gives you an idea of just how hard it came down.

Other factors, like lack of maintenance and improperly sized drains can also matter.

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[info]reverend_jim
2008-06-25 02:01 am UTC (link)
A great deal of Somerville's drainage system dates to the 1800's. (That's why Washington St. @ McGrath, under the railroad bridge, will flood with even moderate rainfall.) They're apparently working on it as the opportunity arises (i.e. they need to tear up a road for other reasons), but it's a sloooow process.

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[info]plumtreeblossom
2008-06-24 10:21 pm UTC (link)
Holy shit! I was caught right out in it, but it wasn't that bad yet.

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[info]thespian
2008-06-24 10:28 pm UTC (link)
I, on the other hand, am really tempted to walk the half block to go look at it.

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[info]haptotrope
2008-06-24 10:52 pm UTC (link)
report back with current data.

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[info]narya
2008-06-24 11:00 pm UTC (link)
I took a look and it is now fine again (the road surface is clearly visible). I'll update the post to reflect that.

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[info]islandofzilan
2008-06-24 10:33 pm UTC (link)
that's awesome! =D

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[info]apricot3
2008-06-24 10:52 pm UTC (link)
whoa, what time was this picture taken? i took cedar from highland down to somerville ave at 3:30pm today and didn't notice a damn thing, wtf!!

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[info]narya
2008-06-24 10:57 pm UTC (link)
I think it was sometime between 5:45 and 6:00. I left my house at 4:50 and the sky was blue and the road was fine. When I came back it was a lake.

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[info]narya
2008-06-24 11:02 pm UTC (link)
(and now it looks perfectly normal again)

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[info]weegoddess
2008-06-24 11:27 pm UTC (link)
OMFG. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in Camberville. But I'm glad that it's all normal again.

Sheesh.

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[info]avacon
2008-06-25 01:57 am UTC (link)
Back in around 1999-2001 there was a big storm that
caused Broadway in Cambridge near Kendall and Garment District
to have water up to car-window level. That was special.

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[info]gravitrue
2008-06-25 04:30 am UTC (link)
I had a friend downtown who at 3:39 reported hail the size of grapes at Northeastern U. In S'ville, I saw no hail. The height of the storm lasted only a few minutes, though.

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[info]maelithil
2008-06-25 05:50 am UTC (link)
It hailed in Davis Sq, but only for a minute or so. That, and the hail wasn't very large at all, so it melted very quickly. I know this because I was busy staring out of the window at the two large branches crashing into my yard from one of my maples.

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[info]ukelele
2008-06-25 11:32 am UTC (link)
I know it because it makes an awfully dramatic noise on the window air conditioners.

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[info]veda815
2008-06-25 11:36 am UTC (link)
I also saw grape sized hail around 5:30 somewhere in the Woburn/Wincester area.

Oh and I was on my bike at the time. :(

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[info]pierceheart
2008-06-25 01:45 pm UTC (link)
At NEU at that time, where I work, there wasn't any.
Odd.

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[info]josephineave
2008-06-25 12:56 am UTC (link)
Makes the decent sized tree branch that fell into my backyard seem a bit trivial. But tomorrow the limb will still be there...

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[info]ron_newman
2008-06-25 01:08 am UTC (link)
I biked through that intersection around 8:15 pm, and had no clue it had looked like this earlier in the evening.

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[info]mamajoan
2008-06-25 01:42 am UTC (link)
Holy crap. I knew that was some kinda storm (I'm still damp) but wow.

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[info]daisytells
2008-06-25 01:56 am UTC (link)
Your pictures certainly tell the tale. Pitch dark at 5:30 PM, and water knee deep in the streets. A very intense storm. I suspect that Cambridge Street at the bottom of Beacon Hill resembled your pictures for a while until the storm drains caught up with the excessive amount of water.

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[info]pearlythebunny
2008-06-25 03:27 am UTC (link)
We have a drain in our driveway, which my husband cleaned out yesterday. Nonetheless, during this sudden storm about 4 inches of pollen stuff came down and clogged the drain, and I had to decide if I wanted to wade out in ankle-deep water in a lightning storm to clear the drain so the basement wouldn't flood. In the end, I waited for the lightning to stop before I went out. And the basement survived.

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[info]arrowintwolakes
2008-06-25 03:32 am UTC (link)
So this is why I'm having such trouble getting recycle bins, they're migrating!

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[info]purpless77
2008-06-26 06:44 pm UTC (link)
It's disheartening that so many of you aren't from here. This "flood" isn't surprising in the least as it happens during nearly every storm. There was a short storm about a week or two ago, the same thing happened. Maybe some of you are at work or just aren't home but it always happens. I've seen a lot worse. One time people on Hall street were taking water out of their cars with buckets. The parked cars had even moved from their spaces because of the water. Just try to always be prepared, lol. When it's really pouring, chances are that area is flooded.

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