Zero Emission Taxi in Lubbock? Really?

Most city drainage system designs follow a standard to handle a normal 30 year rainfall runoff event and in no way can handle a 50 year or in this case a 100/300 year rainfall event.

The amount of water expected for a 30, 50, and 100/300 year event is based on past recorded precipitation DATA for the particular area.

Mother Nature is fickle making it is impossible to predict the weather at 100% accuracy much less the amount of runoff a single storm or a series of storms is going to produce.

A pumping and underground piping infrastructure for a growing city and the surrounding suburbs to handle a 50 or 100 year event would be phenomenal in size, the cost would be outrageous, and near impossible to do without severe negative impact to domestic water, sewage, and other underground utilities.

Such a system might be possible in a new master-planned location with expansion limitations however tying it into an existing drainage system that was initially designed for a much smaller area is impossible.

The underpasses serve as sumps to collect as much runoff as possible in order to keep the water off the roads.

Without them, all of the streets would quickly become flooded and traffic will stop.

In addition to the above the design must also account for noise pollution which in many cases the freeways and turnpikes especially in residential neighborhoods are built below grade making the roadway the lowest elevation.

I would have marked "VGA", but "GA" is the only level allowed for. Thanks. I hope you actually caught the humor in my posting. That one plans at the 30 year mark could depend on expectation values in the area in question, but even that will not account for an "uber-wet" month. Beyond that, the rainfall rate per hour was vast on May 28, 2015 here in Lubbock.

The stormwater project was completed only a few years ago in Lubbock. Before that, water just collected in the streets. What a mess! Now the various playa lakes within the city limits act as the catch basins for much of the runoff, and these have spillway caissons connecting to the X diameter header pipes.

The study done by Parkhill, Smith, and Cooper engineering firm here locally, was based on a 100 year, 24 hour rainfall event. This was put into the model as 6.8" in one 24 hour event. The rainfall recorded yesterday was between 1.5" and 3" for most of the western parts of the city, mostly accumulated with in 2 hours. That corresponds with a 24 hour event of 18" to 36"!!! No wonder things flooded out.

Notwithstanding the good study done, the city never could afford the infrastructure of any system with enough capacity to have carried all this rainfall away within the confines of the event. The link provided below is one of the outfall pipes of the stormwater system in Yellowhouse Canyon (flows into a segment of the Brazos River). The pipe is at least 60" diameter. The flow shown is not this recent event, and represents half-pipe event. I suspect yesterday's was 100% full pipe on all outfalls with considerable developed dynamic head at the outfall, unfortunately I do not have the footage on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwYk9x8ldw8

According to a spokesperson at Engineering, there are 35 outfalls of various sizes throughout the canyon lake system running through the northern part of town, and the collection pipes from playa lakes that carry water from the south part of town. The largest pipes are in the 60" to 72" diameter range. Not all have non-entry grates, and most are submerged within the canyon lake system.

Apparently, it would be a really stupid idea for terrorists to attempt to use this system for access to populated areas in the city, as there could be rattlesnakes.

There's nowhere for water to run in Texas.

There are probably not many rattle snakes in those drains now (let alone any terrorists). Have no fear, your reptilian guardians will be back soon.

I sympathize with everyone in the storm path including all of my relatives in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas some whom cannot get to their homes and don't know whether they have anything left that is salvageable. (I will most likely have to take vacation and go back to help clean up when the water recedes enough.)

I sometimes wish my job was/is like a weatherman where I can be off-base 90% of the time and still stay employed.

Then I think of the overwhelming responsibility that goes along with the job and the guilt associated with a wrong prediction for storm path or intensity level and I am humbled.

I am sure the civil engineering personnel often have the same guilt and sorrowful feelings then start second guessing themselves at times.

I am so in awe of nature's power whether wind, water, earthquakes, or lightning.

Rattlers? I would be more worried about water moccasins. On second thought I hope all the terrorists try to invade the wet places and drainage systems if they show up. (It might save us some ammunition.)

I surely hope you and your family are safe and dry and I hope you all stay that way.

That's very sad to be at the mercy of mom Nature.

My brother and sister live near Hot Springs, on top of big hills.

I have relatives in Lubbock and Brownfield Texas too. They are dry AFAIK.

Thankfully, here in Lubbock, it is a bit dry climate (and too cold mostly in the winters) for water moccasins. Perhaps instead of sending known terrorists to Guantanamo prison, we could set them up a "special" prison near Sweetwater, TX., and even let them participate in the rattlesnake round-up (as bait fish).

Texas storm drain personhole geyser:

I found the cover in my backyard and I live in Illinois.

Question: What would you call a taxi that only emitted at night?

Nocturnal transportation? A nightmare? A black body radiator?

Once you pay the cabby it could be a nocturnal remission? An electrified boozer?

Thanks for the knock, knock joke, can we all have the answer now?

A "glow-in-the-dark cab?"