Flood

Between Salt River & the bridge at the Morningstar (75) intersection the road was was flooded out in several places earlier today.

Jumbie -STX

I drove around STX today from 12:30 to 3pm. I tried to take somebody from Salt River to Frederiksted. I got her 2/3 of the way there, and I was lucky to get back home as soon as I did. Along the way, we saw coconuts and a tree branch floating across the roads, a storm drain gushing water, stuck cars, and rivers and lakes that we never knew existed. Dozens of road sections had foot-deep water, which we crossed. Several main roadways were completely closed from flooding. It was like navigating a maze, trying to find the correct path. After we got dead stuck in traffic for the 2nd time, this time on the highway near Williams Delight, my passenger got into her daughter’s car who happened to be in front of us. I escaped at that point by U-turning and driving the wrong way down the highway and crossing the median (the cops didn’t mind any of it). A 1-hour trip took 2.5 hours, so not too bad, really. I thought I was going to be out there for many more hours. What an exciting day!

Here's a clip from the STX source of the flooding.
http://stcroixsource.com/video/2010/11/10/flooding-footage-frederiksteds-emancipation-drive

And from VITEMA.........

HEAVY DOWNPOURS FORECASTED OVERNIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING; MOTORISTS URGED TO USE EXTREME CAUTION ON ROADWAYS

The torrential downpour that caused dangerous localized flooding across the Territory, especially at the west end of St. Croix, is forecast to reoccur overnight and into the early morning of Thursday.

According to the National Weather Service, a number of variables made it difficult to where the heavy rainfall would occur but models show a similar amount of heavy rainfall across the Territory beginning at about midnight on Thursday.

The heavy rainfall is associated with a stationary front that has lingered east of the Territory for the last several days. At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the front was moving northeast of the Virgin Islands at 10 miles per hour and was poised to produce showers and thunderstorms, embedded with torrential rainfall.

Not as bad out east STX but it sure is a lot of rain. It must be a 50 or 100 year event.

Anyone know the total rainfall amount?

Here are the approximate daily totals for rain in Salt River. I don't get up at midnight to measure the exact end of day numbers.
Sun 11/7/2010: 5 inches, spread out all day
Mon 11/8: 1 inch
Tue 11/9: 1 inch
Wed 11/10: 4 inches, and most of it fell in a short time

Thanks Bob, We must be setting a record>