More water than we needed

These pictures are mostly for Cheryl, who is in Chicago visiting her family, but I have thrown in some background for other blog viewers.

A strange winter storm (named Iago, the weather channel says) has been dumping rain on us for four days now.  As of this afternoon, the four-day total is about 6 inches.  Our normally placid Reems Creek (for which our valley is named) has been running high with white water since the rain started.  This photo was taken Tuesday, but the creek is much more swollen now than when this shot was made two days ago.

When we built this house, the builder sited the house between two natural swales which looked like they had carried rain water in the past.  We have not seen any water flowing in either of these swales since we moved here, but that all changed this week.  This is the waterfall that has sprung up in the western-most swale, which runs along our driveway.  Although a lot of water is pouring down this swale and making a roaring noise, the water is being harmlessly funneled down to the street.  This photo is looking up from our driveway.

This is the water as it flows alongside the driveway, headed to the street.  No problem here.

This is the smaller waterfall that has appeared in the swale on the east side of the house. The water from this swale is supposed to flow into a large catch basin on the side of our house (where it mixes with the downspout water) and flow through two culverts down to the dry streambed in front of our house.  

The intake to the catch basin is under the large flat rock to the left of our deck stairs.  The water is actually flowing over the top of and around the stone.  We're not sure if the flow is exceeding the capacity of the catch basin and culverts, or if they are now blocked by the flow of debris into the basin.  The water in the photo is up to the level of the top of the bottom step, but at times is running higher than that.  After passing the stone, the water is cutting two gulleys into the dirt beneath the deck.  The gulleys are about a foot deep and eroding a fair amount of dirt.  The light under the deck wasn't good enough to take pictures, but one of the gulleys was running right up next to the house and threatening to run in the windows of Cheryl's studio.  Norris grabbed a shovel and started rerouting the gulleys to move the water further away from the studio wall.  So far the diversion is holding up and no water has come into the house.

Here is where the water emerges from under the deck.  A still photo just doesn't capture the effect of how much water is flowing here and how fast it is moving.  The water is cutting a fairly deep gully into the slope of the front yard 

The water that goes into the catch basin is supposed to exit the culverts about where the yellow grass ends and go into a rock-lined dry stream bed to the left of the photo.  Some water is still flowing in that path, but most of the water is now creating a new stream bed to the right.  Fortunately the rain is supposed to turn to snow and end by midnight.  Next week we'll have to assess the damage and see what we have to do to correct the drainage issues.