State of Emergency

While Hurricane Ike makes his way toward the Texas Gulf Coast, the city of Lubbock is experiencing its own version of a weather disaster.

The Lubbock International Airport (which is directly east across Interstate 27 from where I work...like 1 mile away) received the most rainfall in a 24 hour period in history...of the airport, I assume.

Over eight inches of water was dumped over the city of Lubbock yesterday, which is over half of the average yearly rainfall for the city. To put it simply, Lubbock just doesn't see rains like that.


At 9pm last night, the Lubbock mayor declared the city "in a state of emergency" encouraging people to "turn around, don't drown".

The local weathermen are calling it a "100 year rain". All I know is during the three and a half years I've spent living out here out of that 100, I've never seen it rain like it did yesterday.


Every school is closed today. Even Texas Tech University shut its doors, and I don't think they ever close down, unless there's some major weather event like a flood or something.

The roads were like those of a ghost town this morning on my way to work, which actually made my morning commute quite pleasant, despite the slow moving 1978 GMC Cheyenne pickup that drove in front of me. Many roads were closed, and most had barricades where portions of the road where submerged.

Yesterday on my way home from work, I encountered standing water on the street I live on that was every bit of six inches deep. I felt like I was driving a motor boat.

This is Milwaukee Ave. Looks more like the Milwaukee River. I wonder if there really is a Milwaukee River?

Cotton fields are flooded, making them look more like rice fields than a crop that will produce white, fluffy softness.

Now, you have to remember that Lubbock County is the flattest county in the country. So, when you get a lot of water, there's really no where for it to go, except for places like the Wal Mart parking lot, or Dave's Need For Speed Go Cart fun station.

Seeing it rain all day is not really something to write home about. I've seen it rain all day in the Ozarks many times, but there's plenty of hills for it to drain off. But, out here, as I've mentioned in a previous post, even a half an inch of rain can put the Wal Mart parking lot on 4th St. under water. Holy crap, that's my second mentioning of Wal Mart in a single post. Next thing you know, I'll be like this: View news story here.

It just doesn't rain all day like that out here!

Thankfully, the corn and peanut office has remained open to serve the growers of this state. Rest easy.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry has intelligently called Hurricane Ike a "big storm". Yes, folks, that right there is way he is governor of the largest state in the lower 48. Not just any Joe Blow can recognize the sheer size of Hurricane Ike, unless you're, oh let's say, the Weather Channel, MSNBC, or anyone with Internet or cable television.

The city of Lubbock was already preparing for an influx of evacuees from the Houston and Galveston areas, however, many of the cots set up for these people had to be used by Lubbock citizens whose homes were flooded.

Fortunately, I have a top floor apartment. I just hope the flooding doesn't give me an excuse to meet the people that live below me.