
By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
“All in all I’d say we faired pretty well,” Decatur Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert said Friday morning in the wake of a Thursday evening thunderstorm which dumped huge amounts of rain on the city within an hour or so.
Rainfall reports varied from nearly three inches to five inches. The storm – “It looked like it was going to miss us, then it dropped south,” Gilbert noted – began shortly before 6 p.m.

“We know of two trees damaged and there were six or so streets that were temporarily flooded,” Gilbert said. “When we get rain like that, that intense, it’s hard for the sewers to carry it all away.
According to Gilbert, different areas of the city were affected.
“It seemed like it wasn’t too bad on the south end,” he explained. “The middle was the worst, from the downtown and going west.” (See Janelle Young’s photo of flooding at the downtown intersection of Monroe and Second streets.)
TIRED CREWS: The storm and numerous recent main breaks have put a strain on the city’s employees.
“These guys have been working their butts off; we had two more main breaks today (Friday). That’s 11 (main breaks) in just 7 days,” Gilbert said.
“They’re obviously getting tired, but they’re coming to work each day and doing a great job.”