Thursday, August 12, 2010

Water in the Streets

The other day Kim and I were working o our computers, and had decided that we were going to go to Bhat Betini to pick up some groceries. Some distant thunder and light rain started to come down just as we were going to leave, so we decided to wait a bit for it to clear. Then it really started to rain. It was pouring, the rain was coming down so hard that the water coming down off the roof near the spiral stairs was literally a waterfall. It kept up like this for at least two hours.

The KC's Garden is Flooded

The result was the worst flooding I have seen to date in Kathmandu. as I went out on to our patio and looked down at the garden down below, it was completely covered in water, at least a foot of it. The small river just down the road was apparently overflowing its banks completely and water from it was flowing down the nearby road and directly into ours. Having seen and smelled that water I resigned myself to staying indoors for the night. The flooding got so bad that it got into the first floor of our building (raised several feet above ground level) and our power was cut for the night.


A woman attempts to navigate our street, up to her waist in water.

The house owners told us that this was the first time they had seen flooding of this level since they have lived here (over a decade I believe). The water actually went back down fairly quickly, as the drainage on our street is better and a more modern design than most of the city. By late evening the water had subsided from the garden, and in the morning it was completely gone. Even the debris that had been left behind was cleaned up by 10AM. I have to give credit to the people that take care of the street I live on, they really do a nice job keeping it up. Some other parts of the city are still a bit of a mess. 
Water fills our street in Lazimpat

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