Old Louisville Flood Flood Damage

Louisville Kentucky received 6 inches of rain in under 75 minutes on August 4, 2009. I managed to stay safe and dry at work during the storms and my apartment and car made it through with no damage. To make up for that fact I ended up walking all the way from my apartment to UofL and back taking pictures of some of the damage along the way. This was with Cassie, Steven, & Alex.



Here are the top 5 highlights of the adventure:

5) Car tied to tree with garden hose


Not sure what this person was trying to accomplish, but it must have worked because their car didn't float away.

4) Rows of water damaged cars


On 3rd street the most impressive part was the the cars that had their trunks float and forced their back wheels up onto the curb.


The waterline was also visible half way up the doors of many cars.

3) Water being pumped out of UofL basements




There were 9 buildings that were reportedly having water pumped out of them. We didn't see that many but there were pumps running in quite a few buildings when we were there.

2) The mud outside of the Houchens building and in the underpass




It was the smell that really was the worst part. This area was under several feet of water with most of it making it into the basement. This was a really impressive sight on the news.

1) The massive flood at the underpass next to Speed School


We spent most of our time looking at the lake that had formed next to Speed School.


I feel sorry for the person who managed to get their car stuck in the massive amount of water. If I knew how it ended up getting stuck there I might not feel sorry for the person.


This view really give prospective on how much water there actually was left remaining even hours after the water has receded everywhere else.


The traffic lights in the intersection were acting rather crazy. This picture really does't convey what was really happening. All of the lights were on flickering really quickly. They would occasionally change behavior, but it was hard to track what it was actually doing.


Luckily there is a pumping station at this corner!


While the MSD and city said all of their pumps were operational, I'm not sure what their explanation is for this corner.


Luckily they have the sense to warn people that this intersection might flood. At least the car that was stuck was not driving in the direction where they could see this sign. That would make an even more awesome picture.


For all of the pictures I took during our trek to look at the flood damage can be found in my Flickr set on Louisville Flood 8-4-09.