Nflight
09-09-2011, 11:25 AM
If you have heard of some amazing flooding in Central Pennsylvania in the last several days I was in the middle of all of this. The reports don't seem to do justice to just how much flooding we actually received. The local amount of rain we received is around 15 inches in a 24 hour period of time. Yes I said that right 15 inches or for you metric folk out there over 38 centimeters or 381 millimeters.
Imagine filling your bathtub to the top in less then two hours, now empty it and then fill it another 3 inches after that over the rest of the period of time in whats left of the day.
At one point it was raining at nearly 5 inches an hour for two hours. I took some ugly pictures of me driving my Bus in the rain, in one shot I am following another bus up a roadway the incline is actually pretty steep at nearly an 8% grade. There is water coming down the roadway and it is nearly 6 inches deep. A car pulls in behind the bus in front of me. Behind the car follows a tree stump from alongside the roadway, the tree stump is probably 3 feet (Sorry metric fans you figure it out) in diameter. It is being pushed by the water and heading right for my bus. How do you explain to your superiors that you were hit by a tree stump, not you hitting the tree stump? I swerved for the tree stump and missed it luckily as I was losing the side of the road with the large pebbles that high water flow was creating. I reach the top of the hill, but the rain was still falling and the visibility was so horrible I kept my speed under 10 mph.
I picked up my second batch of children ( Yes right now I am driving a school bus) and proceeded to take 4 hours and 18 minutes to deliver my children home safely. I only drove an extra 28 miles but had to back up more then one mile, and turn around six times due to water even my 22.5 inch wheels could not cross. Sometimes barricades were set up, sometimes law enforcement would not let me pass, and sometimes just commonsense kicked in. I crossed a section of roadway where I had really no choice in the matter, The roadway was fine just 10 minutes before when I crossed it but now it was across the roadway and nearly 60 feet wide. I took the knowledge I had and eased into the flow, by now I had every child left in the bus crammed in the front seat leaning to watch me wade through the stream that wasn't there 10 minutes before. The water was at the bottom step and just lapping at the door, at the other side of the stream crossing was a newer jaguar 4 dr sedan type. He was watching me intently with his eyes on if I could make it he was going to try. I tried to wave him off, but I think he was rolling for the stream crossing when I disappeared around the bend on my way to find a way home for the children still left on my bus.
I had left several voice mails with my superior letting her know I was trying to reach some how to get the kids home, I was doing my best in the worse conditions. At 5 pm she called me and asked how many I had left, I responded I am just now dropping off all but one. I explained that the only two roads I know to get to her house were blocked by a barricade and law enforcement. I dropped her at the school and she was transferred to a nearby school set up as a shelter for those who could not get home. Some 1,000 teachers, students, and faculty (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/09/central_pennsylvania_schools_c.html) including some parents who once they got to school could not get home.
I just wanted to tell you I made it out alive. Thursday School was cancelled, It is now Friday and we have the whole weekend off as Friday morning the local creeks are just now cresting with some serious high marks being reached. On my way home on Wednesday afternoon I drove over this main highway with the roaring current under the bridge on a state road. Pictures of that same bridge crossing show the water crested six feet higher then the top of the bridge.
They are calling it a freak of nature, I call it the Flood of 2011.
Imagine filling your bathtub to the top in less then two hours, now empty it and then fill it another 3 inches after that over the rest of the period of time in whats left of the day.
At one point it was raining at nearly 5 inches an hour for two hours. I took some ugly pictures of me driving my Bus in the rain, in one shot I am following another bus up a roadway the incline is actually pretty steep at nearly an 8% grade. There is water coming down the roadway and it is nearly 6 inches deep. A car pulls in behind the bus in front of me. Behind the car follows a tree stump from alongside the roadway, the tree stump is probably 3 feet (Sorry metric fans you figure it out) in diameter. It is being pushed by the water and heading right for my bus. How do you explain to your superiors that you were hit by a tree stump, not you hitting the tree stump? I swerved for the tree stump and missed it luckily as I was losing the side of the road with the large pebbles that high water flow was creating. I reach the top of the hill, but the rain was still falling and the visibility was so horrible I kept my speed under 10 mph.
I picked up my second batch of children ( Yes right now I am driving a school bus) and proceeded to take 4 hours and 18 minutes to deliver my children home safely. I only drove an extra 28 miles but had to back up more then one mile, and turn around six times due to water even my 22.5 inch wheels could not cross. Sometimes barricades were set up, sometimes law enforcement would not let me pass, and sometimes just commonsense kicked in. I crossed a section of roadway where I had really no choice in the matter, The roadway was fine just 10 minutes before when I crossed it but now it was across the roadway and nearly 60 feet wide. I took the knowledge I had and eased into the flow, by now I had every child left in the bus crammed in the front seat leaning to watch me wade through the stream that wasn't there 10 minutes before. The water was at the bottom step and just lapping at the door, at the other side of the stream crossing was a newer jaguar 4 dr sedan type. He was watching me intently with his eyes on if I could make it he was going to try. I tried to wave him off, but I think he was rolling for the stream crossing when I disappeared around the bend on my way to find a way home for the children still left on my bus.
I had left several voice mails with my superior letting her know I was trying to reach some how to get the kids home, I was doing my best in the worse conditions. At 5 pm she called me and asked how many I had left, I responded I am just now dropping off all but one. I explained that the only two roads I know to get to her house were blocked by a barricade and law enforcement. I dropped her at the school and she was transferred to a nearby school set up as a shelter for those who could not get home. Some 1,000 teachers, students, and faculty (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/09/central_pennsylvania_schools_c.html) including some parents who once they got to school could not get home.
I just wanted to tell you I made it out alive. Thursday School was cancelled, It is now Friday and we have the whole weekend off as Friday morning the local creeks are just now cresting with some serious high marks being reached. On my way home on Wednesday afternoon I drove over this main highway with the roaring current under the bridge on a state road. Pictures of that same bridge crossing show the water crested six feet higher then the top of the bridge.
They are calling it a freak of nature, I call it the Flood of 2011.