December Flooding

I suppose there's something good to be said about all this rain:
      it wasn't snow.

The storm total I've just recorded was 2.79". To put that into perspective, our usual precipitation for the month of December is 3.02". We received nearly that entire amount in just 24 hours.

I drove over to Miamisburg as the "Action" stage of the Great Miami River near the Hutchings power station is 14 feet. The "Flood" stage is 17' though the system of levees throughout the valley prevent the sort of flooding we had in 1913. Still, the river's "instantaneous" height at 8:30 a.m. was 18.61 feet. I've watched it slowly recede (it is 17.79 feet as I type this mid-afternoon) and I don't believe the earlier forecast of about 21.5 feet by tomorrow morning will come to pass.

Still, the river is full, bank to bank, and it is flowing with great force.

Great Miami River - Miamisburg - looking south

Linden Avenue Bridge in distance

Great Miami River - Miamisburg - looking north

Route 725 Bridge in distance

 Yesterday I drove over to the Germantown Dam, also part of the Miami Valley flood protection system, and the water was rushing through the dam (on the far left, unseen) and flowing south in Twin Creek.

Germantown Dam - December 21, 2013

After yesterday's high of 64°, last night thunderstorms began rolling through about 9 p.m. A severe thunderstorm watch was posted until 3 a.m. Who expects this sort of thing in winter?

Farmersville Road - looking south

I heard that the bridge on Manning Road (German/Jackson Twp) was partly submerged (the guardrails, at least) so I drove over. This is as close as I could get. At the bottom of this road is Manning Road, running east/west. The bridge would be on the far right of this picture. There was no way of getting close - not even on foot - save swimming.

I reversed back up the hill on Farmersville Road, turned around in the driveway at the top of the hill and proceeded north to Walden Road which gave me a view of the valley that contains Twin Creek. There was little but water as far as I could see.

 This shot shows the valley of Twin Creek west of Germantown (and south of Farmersville).

 Another view from the high vantage of Walden Road (Jackson Twp.). It is not the dry rural valley of most of the year. I've seen it flooded a number of times in the past but I've never seen the water this deep or this widespread. The rain fell so heavily and in such a short time, that the relatively small Twin Creek couldn't handle the flow.