Scary Torrential Rains!

Some sudden heavy downpour came upon us yesterday, nobody expected it to be this intense.
I was at the supermarket checking out when suddenly everyone stopped what they were doing and some even ran to the windows to watch!
The sprinkles had quickly turned into heavy rainfall and the wind made it impossible to even see the parking lot!

It was exciting and scary all at once, the cashier couldn't focus on checking me out, everyone was in awe of this storm. Outside everyone was running for cover, nobody dared to try to make it to their cars. It was blinding you couldn't even see what was ahead a few feet. Few very courageous folks ran out with their grocery bags including myself.

I was pushing the shopping cart so hard you couldn't see its wheels. By the time I was at my vehicle I had water up to my calves. I was drenched and struggling to throw all my bags in the car. Never seen this much rain in my life before!

I cautiously drove out of there, not knowing what was ahead or behind me on the streets. Luckily I live 2 minutes away, I could barely see the stop signs and lights. Cars were driving slow, so much water had accumulated on the street corners it was nearly impossible to drive through there without skidding or having water be thrown over other cars.

At times I was feeling my vehicle wanting to drift off. I sincerely thought at one point that I was being dragged to the other side of the road. Very Scary. But I did make it home safe. several minutes seemed like hours.

My priority was to see if all the dogs and the chickens were ok. Stuff had been thrown around the yard but I couldn't think about the damage right now, my poor chickens haven't seen any rain yet, they were under the coop soaking. I struggled to get under there, I grabbed them and put them in the coop to safety. It was a messy muddy job but it had to be done cause the water had started to flood the pen...now I was missing a dog!

He must have gotten scared and hid somewhere, but where? he's 116 pounds and I can't find him!? now I'm in a panic, it's raining too hard to go get my groceries out of the vehicle, I'm drenched running across my house looking for him, while the other dogs are barking because of the thunder and they're running everywhere soaking wet too...ughhh what a nightmare!

Finally I find him inside the garden shed! poor guy squeezed his way through the small opening of the door. He was too scared to even come out! He was fine once he ran in the house with me.

Within a an hour the rain barrels were full, the yard looked like a huge pond, water was gushing down the street like a raging river. I couldn't see the sidewalk or the street. It was insane! Just minutes later there were sirens coming from all directions. There must have been many accidents nearby.

I can't believe the damage these rains can do in such a short period.

And of course this is big news in Arizona, there were severe weather alerts on TV, many lost power, lots of trees down, even roofs collapsing. Very scary. And once all this had calmed some they said 1 inch and 1/2 of rain had fallen in my area within a half hour!! Unbelievable.

Now I need to clean up the wet dog smell and muddy paw prints all over the place.
But it was exciting though. My garden and fruit trees will definitely benefit from this after all the heat and humidity we've been putting up with.
This is what I call a major Monsoon Storm!