Gaston

At channel 6's station on Broad Street, about 3 miles from here, they've measured 11 inches of rain. That's a record for Capital City - ever. It should rain hard for another hour. Gaston brought us more rain than Floyd and Isabel combined, but not much wind, thankfully. Mom is one of over 70,000 people in central Va. without power; I've still got electricity, obviously. I see a damp patch over the window in the trunk room; the other areas for roof concern look okay. I have not ventured into the basement, yet. The rain is driving the wind onto the front of the house.

The RBraves got an extention on having to decide whether the team can play at the Diamond. The repairs or changes made to the drainage system are getting quite a test. (Oh, here it is. They made grooves in the field. I kept thinking that Atlanta would be on our case. Officially, anyway, it's the Internation League that will fine the team and possibly boot us out of the league. All this when the RBraves are leading the division!)

I95 and I64 have been closed where the highway passes under Belvidere for at least 3 hours. Carytown Ukrop's reportedly has a flooded parking lot, and trees are once more beginning to topple.


Nature Moments that I fogot to mention this morning:

beautiful wetland hike at the state park: a humming bird on cardinal flowers; exquisite pea-like flowers I could not identify; jack-in-the-pulpit in fruit

explaining erosion to J