Rain Down on Me, From a Great Height

Living in Los Angeles, I didn’t expect this. I knew we were supposed to get rain late Wednesday afternoon, and on the drive home I certain drove through some pretty heavy rain. But Thursday was supposed to be clear. And it was.

I was busy doing work things, and I noticed an alert on my phone at around 2:45 about lightning in the area (Arcadia.) That didn’t sound right. At lunch everything was sunny and clear. But I looked at the radar and saw that some storms had popped up. I still didn’t believe it until I turned around and saw the rain outside my window. I didn’t know what to think.

I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I know how afternoon heat + atmospheric instability can lead to isolated storm cells forming, but this isn’t fucking Oklahoma. We even got some hail, too, and periodically we could hear thunder. After the amusement wore off, I went back to work and didn’t think much about it.

Then at 4:45 when I left the office, it was pouring. Pouring to the point where the fastest setting on my windshield wipers was not fast enough. And I noticed that water was starting to flood the road. I figured that I would stay in the center of the road, taking up both lanes since that is the highest part of the road. And I only had 5 blocks to go until I reached the freeway, so I should make it.

Well after one block, the water really started to rise and went over the sidewalk. I know the mantra, turn around don’t drown, so I decided to head back to the office. My decision was affirmed when while at a red light I saw trash bins floating like boats on the road. Water was starting to seep into my engine because my engine light came on.

I got back to the office, waited it out for 30 minutes, confirmed the water retreated and made the journey home. Aside from a couple of lightning strikes, by the time I got about 5 miles away the rain had stopped. By the time I got to DTLA, I saw that it had rained a little.

I’ve driven through a lot of conditions whether it is rain, storms, snow, whatever. But this was the first time when I had water rise up that quickly. It wasn’t scary since I knew what I needed to do. It was just alarming since this is the last place on earth I would have ever imagined this happening.

Well, to offset the nuttiness of this, and because I didn’t take pictures or video of any of this, here is Baba being a good coworker.