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Had four of us spend the night here at the office and we woke to find several semitrucks on the side of I-75 at about 6 a.m. Presumably the drivers said fuck it and crawled into the back to get some sleep.

I turned in at about 1 a.m. and the scene outside our window was kind of eerie. Cars and trucks in the northbound lanes of I-75 near Northline just shut down ... I've got to imagine more than a few folks just went to sleep in their cars.

MDOT is saying the Southfield Freeway is a fucking mess, as well as portions of 696. Hope at least a few of you got an unscheduled day off from work.

jmy wrote:

frank - up in grand blanc wrote:

The Suburban Avenger wrote:No way out of Downriver that isn't flooded. Looks like an office sleepover tonight.

I have a buddy still stranded downtown. Not sure how that is possible, but he's been calling home from his car.

Between road construction and the movie set, downtown was already a mess before the rain. Add in flooded roads, closed freeways, and the Woodward/94 overpass missing, and it was gridlock. There are other ways north (which seemed empty), but everyone was fighting to be on Woodward.

middle aged female wrote:

guest wrote:that is not something you'll fix with a dehumidifier or two

pumps are more appropriate, or you could dig a hole and flush it down to China

We had three pumps running and got all the standing water out; tomorrow is insurance picture and pitch-the-shit-before-it-molds day. I am allergic to mold and mildew and this could get iffy if we wait too long. I'm praying the appliances made it though; at least 1/2 of them

Good luck. You might just want to cut the drywall out at the waterline before it has a chance to mold. Let your appliances dry out completely before you turn them on to see if they work.

Might want to go a bit higher than the water line. But get the bleach out soon. Don't know what's in the water and it can help keep the mold/mildew down. That shit starts
fast.

Took me 2+ hours to get home last night but I made it. Didn't have much of a problem getting out of Downtown (10 to 75 to 96)....it was when I got diverted off 96 at Telegraph that things got dicey. The streets of Redford and Livonia were good and flooded, although traffic seemed to be moving. Didn't see any cars floating but did later on tv.... did a tsunami wave the area hit after 6pm?

As soon as I got west of 275, the waters tapered off significantly, as if it had only sprinkled in Northville.

Watching the skies pour down like cowpiss on a rock and the sewers gurgling up reminded me of a trip to Thailand several years ago. Every afternoon it rains hard for an hour, and then a foot of rain/sewage water floods the streets. Much of the problem is because everyone uses the sewers as a garbage disposal, so for example it's very common to see street food vendors dumping cooking woks full of yesterday's grease into storm drains. Plus there are packs of feral dogs roaming about, shitting big shits everywhere, adding mass to the problem. One morning I was walking down a sidewalk and suddenly a man emerged from an open drain, wearing a bathing cloth and carrying a pole. He was covered in filth but didn't seem to care as he took a deep breath and sunk back into the oily goop. Turns out he was a Bangkok city sewer worker, and his everyday 9 to 5 involved swimming the byzantine system of sewer pipes and using his pole to dislodge logjams of shit, food, and grease, for all of 500 Baht a day, or about 9 bucks. I used to think being a Wayne County jail guard was the worst gig in the world but there's an article in this morning's Detroit News about how those cats are kicking 100K+ salaries due to overtime, so now I'm going with Bangkok sewer unplugger.

vlad the impaler wrote:did a tsunami wave the area hit after 6pm?

It sure seemed like it down here. A gal in our office went out around 6:30 to grab some dinner and turned around because the service road was flooded past the curb. Two cars already were stuck.

Wyandotte's underpasses all flooded right about then, too, along with the dips on I-75 under Dix-Toledo. The Southfield at I-94 was a washout in a hurry ... Allen Park police have told us they still have abandoned cars there this morning.

Parts of Southgate and Taylor still don't have power and basement flooding has been pretty widespread. Ugh.

That's insane.

jmy wrote:

frank - up in grand blanc wrote:

The Suburban Avenger wrote:No way out of Downriver that isn't flooded. Looks like an office sleepover tonight.

I have a buddy still stranded downtown. Not sure how that is possible, but he's been calling home from his car.

Between road construction and the movie set, downtown was already a mess before the rain. Add in flooded roads, closed freeways, and the Woodward/94 overpass missing, and it was gridlock. There are other ways north (which seemed empty), but everyone was fighting to be on Woodward.

middle aged female wrote:

guest wrote:that is not something you'll fix with a dehumidifier or two

pumps are more appropriate, or you could dig a hole and flush it down to China

We had three pumps running and got all the standing water out; tomorrow is insurance picture and pitch-the-shit-before-it-molds day. I am allergic to mold and mildew and this could get iffy if we wait too long. I'm praying the appliances made it though; at least 1/2 of them

Good luck. You might just want to cut the drywall out at the waterline before it has a chance to mold. Let your appliances dry out completely before you turn them on to see if they work.

My SIL and daughter are going to be doing that today, I think.

Our out-of-town boss sent an email out to the entire office offering that all should feel free to work at home if safety on the roads is an issue. I start pretty damn early each day so I was already in and at my desk when the note arrived. No problems worth mentioning on the ride down from the northern frontier. Square Lake road moved much slower than normal, but there were no obvious impediments so who knows what that was all about.

Some weeks ago a storm took down power lines all over the area and so traffic lights were out on Square Lake as well as parts of Telegraph. OCRC appeared to have some of their orange bucket trucks equipped with generators and then plugged in to run the lights at the bigger intersections, but the lesser intersections and turn-arounds were dark, long back-ups ensued, and not a single of these township/'burbs cops were out directing traffic. Maddening, you know, because there seem to be plenty of those dopes around to hide in little speed traps or to patrol 'graph in unmarked "booster" cars, but not a single guy was available to direct traffic.

middle aged female wrote:

jmy wrote:

frank - up in grand blanc wrote:

The Suburban Avenger wrote:No way out of Downriver that isn't flooded. Looks like an office sleepover tonight.

I have a buddy still stranded downtown. Not sure how that is possible, but he's been calling home from his car.

Between road construction and the movie set, downtown was already a mess before the rain. Add in flooded roads, closed freeways, and the Woodward/94 overpass missing, and it was gridlock. There are other ways north (which seemed empty), but everyone was fighting to be on Woodward.

middle aged female wrote:

guest wrote:that is not something you'll fix with a dehumidifier or two

pumps are more appropriate, or you could dig a hole and flush it down to China

We had three pumps running and got all the standing water out; tomorrow is insurance picture and pitch-the-shit-before-it-molds day. I am allergic to mold and mildew and this could get iffy if we wait too long. I'm praying the appliances made it though; at least 1/2 of them

Good luck. You might just want to cut the drywall out at the waterline before it has a chance to mold. Let your appliances dry out completely before you turn them on to see if they work.

My SIL and daughter are going to be doing that today, I think.

Sorry to hear about this MAF. This sucks bad. I imagine you probably felt the same way as I did when I watched my roof blow away six years ago. We're thinking about you and Mr. MAF and hoping for good luck on your appliances and your things

D-Day wrote:

middle aged female wrote:

jmy wrote:

frank - up in grand blanc wrote:

The Suburban Avenger wrote:No way out of Downriver that isn't flooded. Looks like an office sleepover tonight.

I have a buddy still stranded downtown. Not sure how that is possible, but he's been calling home from his car.

Between road construction and the movie set, downtown was already a mess before the rain. Add in flooded roads, closed freeways, and the Woodward/94 overpass missing, and it was gridlock. There are other ways north (which seemed empty), but everyone was fighting to be on Woodward.

middle aged female wrote:

guest wrote:that is not something you'll fix with a dehumidifier or two

pumps are more appropriate, or you could dig a hole and flush it down to China

We had three pumps running and got all the standing water out; tomorrow is insurance picture and pitch-the-shit-before-it-molds day. I am allergic to mold and mildew and this could get iffy if we wait too long. I'm praying the appliances made it though; at least 1/2 of them

Good luck. You might just want to cut the drywall out at the waterline before it has a chance to mold. Let your appliances dry out completely before you turn them on to see if they work.

My SIL and daughter are going to be doing that today, I think.

Sorry to hear about this MAF. This sucks bad. I imagine you probably felt the same way as I did when I watched my roof blow away six years ago. We're thinking about you and Mr. MAF and hoping for good luck on your appliances and your things

Thank, D-day; that really does help.

So far we have the freezer, the dryer, and the washer still with us. Now, if only one of you wanna-be preachers out there could come and lay hands on the furnace, I could have air back before it gets hot again. Can I get an Alleluia?

Anyone see this dude out and about ?

I volunteered to pick someone up after her car stalled out in water. It took 4 hours to get her, which was less than a 8 mile trip. The problem was getting across I75 without using a road that goes under the grand trunk rail line. 3 of those hours involved being stuck on 9 Mile. By midnight one of the alternate routes I had tried early on drained enough for me to get across. Getting her home then was easy.

I avoided using the interstate, because that just seemed obvious to me at the time, but I didn't realize until I got home and saw the local news on TV how bad they were. All the people I saw walking the sidewalk on 9 Mile may never be able to use their cars again.

I shouldn't complain too much about my own lost time, because I volunteered and all, but it reminds of my favorite quote from The Wire, one of the best shows ever.

“There you go. Giving a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.”

Mad Max wrote:I volunteered to pick someone up after her car stalled out in water. It took 4 hours to get her, which was less than a 8 mile trip. The problem was getting across I75 without using a road that goes under the grand trunk rail line. 3 of those hours involved being stuck on 9 Mile. By midnight one of the alternate routes I had tried early on drained enough for me to get across. Getting her home then was easy.

I avoided using the interstate, because that just seemed obvious to me at the time, but I didn't realize until I got home and saw the local news on TV how bad they were. All the people I saw walking the sidewalk on 9 Mile may never be able to use their cars again.

I shouldn't complain too much about my own lost time, because I volunteered and all, but it reminds of my favorite quote from The Wire, one of the best shows ever.

“There you go. Giving a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.”

Yeah, well, giving one when "it ain't your turn to give one" is the difference between a "Human Being" and a mere "Homo Sapiens."

Bravo to ya, Mad Max; when we run out of folks such as you, the Big Road really will be flooded out, and no pumping system will address the overflow.

What Gully said. Good on you, dude.

Allen Park's firefighters were at the intersection of 94 and Southfield plucking people out of the water. I hope there's plenty of cold beers in those guys' future.

Gov. Snyder declares emergency for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb after flooding

On the day of the rain people were trying to figure out how they were going to get home. I wasn't too worried because a cop told me the Lodge was open and I figgered any deep water would've drained by 2AM. It was actually pretty dry, even the spot on Jefferson by the Uniroyal site that usually collects a huge puddle was drier than usual, although when I returned to work the next day the Lodge was closed where you go under Cobo and I had to take Cass, but they've been doing work on it so I dunno if it was water or construction, and people were driving on it further up.

Anyway, they said one day shift coworker took six or eight hours to get home. One guy, definitely someone who can take care of himself, was planning his route to Waterford and wondering if he'd survive a detour up Livernois. He said he was home in 40 minutes, but he described Fenkell as interesting.