We've been getting pounded by several storms this past weekend and will continue to do so over the week. Yesterday, Dave and I pumped 6" of water out of our pool before it started overflowing. Fortunate for us it doesn't overflow into our house. Unfortunately, for our neighbor next door, our pool water, our other neighbor's pool water and all the run off from both properties end up in their back yard and often inside their house.
Our entire block runs downhill from our house, at the south end, to the last house on the north end. You can see this run off on a daily basis even with no rain as that last house always has pooled water in their street gutter. I suspect when these properties were built all of them had mostly grass in the front and back. When it rained heavily all the water percolated into the ground. Over the years most back yards have had large portions cemented. This in turn has caused a cascading effect of water working it's way downhill.
Right about now I'm glad we live at the high end of the block. And fortunately for all the homes who have drainage issues these storms usually only come once a year or every few years.
Even if we are "on higher ground" Dave and I still had to go out in the cold rain and pump 3" out of the pool only to have it fill up again within an hour and a half. The only reason we did it was to be kind neighbors. As I said, it doesn't affect our house at all. As we stood there like wet, stray dogs we looked at each other and both knew what the other was thinking: we miss our old high rise on the west side. It would take a lot of water to rise up 22 floors!
Oh and in case your wondering why the pool water is green. Well, we had the cover on while we went away on a ski trip. A few days of hot weather was all it took for our semi-maintained winter pool to grow algae like a science experiment. My mantra right now is "I love our pool in the summer".
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