I made it home!

My commute home was fairly uneventful, after finally figuring out which way to go... it only took 42 minutes (compared to the usual 30-35). The only signs of the today's flooding were the "high water" signs I encountered along the way (at least 1/2 a dozen) as well as a ton of debris on the roadway.


I didn't realize the city/county owned so many of these signs!

Rainfall totals as of 2:45pm
NWS Raleigh office... ... ... ... ... ... ... .7.60 inches
Raleigh Durham Airport... ... ... ... ... ... 5.61 inches
north Raleigh... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5.50 inches

Once I arrived home I found our trash can lid open and it almost 1/2 way full of water. It took all my strength to turn it over and empty it b/c I could not move it!

I steered way clear of the Crabtree Valley area and here is why....

Edwards Mill Rd behind the Mall


Gas station at the corner of Summit and Glenwood Ave


Ice chest floating at the gas station


Crabtree Valley Ave (looking down from Blue Ridge) behind the mall


Glenwood at Leadmine (just before the Beltline)


Crabtree Creek bridge at Glenwood


Crabtree parking deck


Inside the parking deck


They don't call it a valley for nothing!!!



"Roads near Crabtree Valley Mall flooded as nearby Crabtree Creek's water levels -- normally about 18 feet -- rose to nearly 23.77 feet by 4 p.m., the highest level since flooding from Hurricane Fran on Sept. 6, 1996.

"The mall wasn't too busy, obviously, due to the weather, but we're still working to get employees and customers out safely and to their cars," mall spokeswoman Sandra Geist said about an hour after the mall closed at noon.

She said the ground level of parking -- but no stores -- flooded, and some cars had to be towed to dry land. Television footage and traffic cameras showed vehicles in water up to their hoods.

Emergency crews were working to rescue about 12 people stranded inside the mall as of 4 p.m." (from WRAL.com)

UPDATE at 9pm:
* Flood Warning continues for Crabtree creek in Raleigh.
* Warning is effective through tonight.
* At 09 PM Wednesday the stage was 21.6 feet and the creek was falling.
* Flood stage is 18.0 feet.
* The creek crested at 23.8 feet at 430 PM this afternoon.

The creek rose above flood stage late this morning and will
continue to fall to below flood stage around 2 am. At 22.0 feet,
Glenwood Avenue and the lower level mall parking lot at Crabtree
valley mall are flooded. The near 24 foot crest is comparable to
flooding from hurricane fran back in September of 1996.

More pictures (200+) of the flooding on WRAL.com