Minor flooding, no lasting damage from midweek storms
A day-long bout of heavy rainfall caused minor flooding and, by early Wednesday morning, even covered a handful of roadways in low-lying areas throughout Cullman County. Fortunately, though, all of the reported flooding cleared away rapidly and left local roads no worse for wear.
The Huntsville office of the National Weather Service recorded rainfall amounts of between 1.5 and 3 inches across the county for the 24-hour period between 7 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday. Cullman Emergency Management Agency director Tim Sartin said Wednesday that was enough to temporarily cover roadways in areas that received the heaviest precipitation, though not enough to create lasting closures.
“Everything that was reported to us receded within probably half an hour of the time when the flooding began,” said Sartin. “I was called to observe a flooding report at Golf Course Road, and by the time I got there at 7:!5 a.m., it had already subsided. None of the flooding we received lasted long enough to cause barricading or road closures.”
That could change if the area receives significant additional rainfall, with the weather service forecasting the possibility of more local precipitation, through Friday morning, of up to half an inch.
The weather service reported river flooding across the Tennessee River Valley from the Tuesday-to-Wednesday storm system, and cautioned that isolated thunderstorms this evening could exacerbate flooding in areas already affected from the earlier rainfall.
“The ground was able to absorb the rainfall we received through Wednesday, but any additional amount that we get leaves us vulnerable to the possibility of flooding,” said Sartin. “We’re at the point where the ground is completely saturated, so it will take time for any additional rain to subside.”