Definitely - but we definitely do have a better wet weather response system for relatively obvious reasons. Just the canal system in South Florida is something to be admired.

Rain like that around here is pretty rare. This area might see a few heavy rains a year with more than 2''-3'', but rarely more than that at a time. 16'' at one time is nearly unheard of. I can say that the little we had in comparison to ATL (only 8'' in 24 hours, still a bunch of damn water) was probably in the top 3 heaviest rains I ever recall, and I have lived here my whole life. So I can imagine 16'' is a once every 50 years rain. Not much point to have a flood infrastructure. Heavy rains are handled with little issue. Even a hurricane we had 5 or 6 years ago here in Birmingham wasn't too bad to our roads. We probably got 5''-6'' in the span of the storm. I'm sure Atlanta has a more complex storm drainage system than shit hole Birmingham.

we've had couple of floods like that in st. petersburg, russia (when i lived there) and it always sucks. stay dry.

No, it's not really Nuevo Orleans. We don't live under sea level, by the coast. But it is the greatest flooding to hit the area in at least 100 years. I'm going to go out and get some pictures today.
Well dude, that's just a matter of Darwinism.

ROFLCOPTER

Small creek near my bouse turned into some srious shit. Where the SUV is driving is how I get home from work..and I had just been through there 10min before. That creek is usually a couple feet wide and maybe a foot deep...and it managed to get over a road, flood the area next to those apartments (I'm guessing that water was 8-10ft deep). Idiots were driving through that water and two of them didn't make it..a Volvo S40 and a Mercedes E-class. Helped push them out of the road all while pointing at them and scolding them for being stupid. That "waterfall" is not really a waterfall...i'll have to go back and get pics of it when it's not flooded...that'll make for some interesting comparisons to what can happen in a few hours. Probably not a big deal to some of you, but in the Atlanta area, floods don't just happen because there are soo many hills and rivers that usually take water away very easily. The last time we were even close to this was back in 94' when Tropical Storm Alberto parked over us...and it wasn't even this bad in Atlanta (south GA for fukkered up though).

I think the most ironic picture I saw in all of this was a neighborhood that was flooded where the water was at the roof line of most houses and there was one house that was up on a slight hill and had caught fire....and in the street in front of the house was a firetruck....but the firtruck was submerged under flood water.


http://img2.pict.com/7c/94/0c/165382...vesinflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/7c/ae/62/165382...tmentflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/ac/80/f4/165382...tfloodedii.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/18/3e/3d/165382...floodeddam.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/bd/63/42/165382...rhoodflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/3a/09/0c/165382...tupidflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/66/fb/e0/165382...ilmanflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/b6/3d/9d/165382...rhoodflood.jpg

http://img2.pict.com/ca/cb/dd/165383...orsflooded.jpg

so, we're drawing on our heads again? I thought Kid-n-Play was over.

http://waga.4wmt.com/content/albums/...86a9eac8a2.jpg
Up the road from my house. This is part of my road-tuning path.

Elementary school
http://waga.4wmt.com/content/albums/...db1cc874d1.jpg

These buses floated into each other
http://waga.4wmt.com/content/albums/...3df593356b.jpg

http://waga.4wmt.com/content/albums/...dd6846941b.jpg

Only road in/out of neighborhood up the street. 246 homes. Access only by boat.
http://waga.4wmt.com/content/albums/...a89f2cfa59.jpg

Much is to be said for this.

A lot of the coastal towns, such as Port Charlotte where my family is, were basically marshland before the canal system was dug. In addition to creating a huge surplus of "waterfront" property (most of which is navigable by motorboat, and some of which is even sailboat-compliant) it is a hugely effective drainage system. Despite the fact that torrential rainfall is a common occurrence, we don't even have a storm sewer system per se. The rain is simply channeled into the canals where it drains into the harbor.

The downside to this, of course, is that if the leading edge of a hurricane strikes with sufficient force at the correct angle, it pushes the harbor up into the canal system, causing uniform flooding everywhere. Fortunately this hasn't happened in quite a long time. In fact, I can remember that when one of the big storms passed through in the 80s (can't remember which one) it actually emptied the whole canal system. You could climb down and walk on dry land (well, moist land, anyway) in the canals. I remember being really surprised by how much garbage there was down there. (bicycles, lawnmowers, etc.)

here, try this to reduce your storm water runoff...

Grasspave2 | grass porous / permeable / pervious paving system

http://www.invisiblestructures.com/images/firetruck.jpg

http://www.invisiblestructures.com/i...uecross290.jpg

Dibs on trunklid, rear bumper, and license plate surround.

hmm clean shell

Holy shit.

Is it common for people in that area to have flood insurance? Or are a ton of people F'ed?

is that your car ben? wow
WTF who let that jew back in? Where have you been loki?

Hard to believe I'm in the same city- just five miles east of downtown Atl. I knew it was raining like mad, but didn't see anything like the pics above until I watched the news.

I think it was just NW of ATL that got the worst of it. Kind of like my house got 8'' of rain but a guy about 10 miles east of me only saw maybe 1/2''.

I don't think flood insurance is very common around here except the people that live on river banks or on lakes, and then its probably only some of them. Most people on dry land away from waterways never expect to see floods like this. So I would imagine a lot of people are up a shit creek.

How much is flood insurance anyway, for the non-homeowners among us? I was under the impression that it is one of those things thats really cheap, but people don't get it because they don't think they will ever need it.

Cheap. Depends on your risk category. Low risk and moderate risk areas, maybe $200-$300 a year. On the coast or in high risk areas, probably a bit more like $500-$1000 a year, if not more.