Batavia may have experienced yesterday what is known as a 100-year-flood event.
The data is still being evaluated, it appears that within a two-hour period 3 inches of rain fell on Batavia and parts of Le Roy and Darien.
The city's infrastructure held up pretty well under the circumstances, said City Manager Jason Molino.
"That's a small time frame for that amount of volume," Molino said. "You've got to understand that sanitary and sewer systems are not designed to handle that kind of volume."
He said everything worked as it should.
"There were no failures in the system," Molino said. "There were no collapses and no malfunctions. The water pretty much dissipated within 30 minutes (of the rain stopping)."
A couple of dozen property owners, at least, reported flooded basements or flood-related damage.
Residents who witnessed water cascading into their basements may not feel like the system worked as it should, and Molino sympathized and said when your's is the place being flooded "it's tough to understand" that a combination of location (in a flood plain) and heavy localized rain is something no municipal drainage system is designed to handle.
Tim Yaeger, emergency management coordinator for Genesee County, said that such relatively few reports of damage in Batavia may mean that the county can't qualify for an emergency designation that would free up funding for financial help for property owners. But perhaps if the storm damage is grouped in with damage to Elmira and other parts of the Southern Tier last week, an emergency designation might be possible, he said.
If you suffered property damage, Molino said, you should contact your insurance company, but you can also contact the city manager's office to ensure the damage is counted in any reports sent to the state or federal government.
Yaeger cautioned against "false hope" of an emergency designation because "it's a very high threshold to meet."
The map shows rain total estimates for the hours of 4 to 6 p.m. Pink is 2+ inches and blue is 3 inches.
The weather system that went
The weather system that went through Western NY last weekend brought the waterways higher than yesterday's storms. The USGS gauges didn't come anywhere near flood conditions this past weekend and the readings from yesterday and today are lower still. As an example, flood stage on Tonawanda Creek in Batavia is 9' and it barely made it over 2'.
Kevin, I'm not sure of the
Kevin, I'm not sure of the relevance to what USGS gauges measured on the Tonawanda and elsewhere compared to the rarity of 3 inches of rain in two hours. It's apples and oranges.
You can't claim a
You can't claim a hundred-year "flood" event if absolutely none of the local waterways were anywhere near actual flood stage. They weren't even close to an "actionable" stage.
It's not apples and oranges. It's the scientific data associated with hydrology and moving water dynamics. If you want to say yesterday's rain was some sort of rare localized weather anomaly that's another matter entirely.
It's two different subjects,
It's two different subjects, Kevin. It is apples and oranges. We're talking about three inches of rain in two hours. Nothing here addresses water levels in Tonawanda or anywhere else. You're picking an argument where there is none by bringing up "data" that is 100 percent irrelevant. It's apples and oranges. Did I mention any water way in the story? No, I didn't. This article is about three inches of rain in two hours. Period.
I live in Darien and both my
I live in Darien and both my rain gages said we got four inches...and a lighting strike that damaged are cable box...plus side to this...the farmers needed it and it put much needed water in are wells
I had over 5" in 24-hours in
I had over 5" in 24-hours in our rain gauge in Batavia. The rain we experienced was a 100-year storm event, not a flood event.
According to NOAA, the
According to NOAA, the 100-year storm event (intensity) for a two-hour duration in our area is 2.75 inches. With many local rain gauges and amateur weather reports of at least 4 inches, the event was probably closer to a 500-year event. This does not mean that it only occurs once every 500 years, but that it is a storm that has a 1 in 500 chance of occurring at any given time. You could have two 500-year events on consecutive days, but the chance is exceedingly unlikely.