200 mm in 12 hours, or in other words: a third of st helens’ average annual precipitation in half a day. this is what that looks like on the rain radar:
and this is what that looks like on our property: a meter deep washout.
we got quite lucky: the road itself didn’t take damage, but the massive amount of water being dumped in such a short time overwhelmed the culverts.
the openings silted up and once the culvert was blocked the water took the detour across to road, and that couldn’t deal with it for as long as the storm lasted. it took ten tons (two medium sized trucks) of 40 mm scalps to repair the damage.
that excavator has once again proven a very handy tool indeed; right now all the excavation businesses around town are busy fixing up driveways and drainages, and having our own tools makes this all so much easier.
the deck, however, withstood this first test perfectly. it also passed the kris-test, the most stringent criteria known to man (to me anyway). we will have to do a bit of landscaping around the edges, to cover the gaps. that should not be too difficult: excavator to the rescue!
the rain was otherwise welcome, because the summer weather was a lot dryer than the previous years, and the grass was more yellow than green. hopefully the autumn and winter rains will fix that problem. at least the waratah, protea, bottle brush and banksia bushes survived, thanks to the irrigation systems. rain: it’s either too much or too little …