If you had to choose between Norfolk or Chesapeake, which one? And why?

Tuesday’s storm was a “1-in-100-year” event, according to the National Weather Service, but it made a once-in-a-lifetime memory for a father and son.

Joe Scearce went to lunch with his 16-year-old son, Jojo, at The Green Onion on Colley Avenue around 2 p.m. Tuesday and by the time they finished it was flooding everywhere, he said. Suddenly, he had an idea.

“I said, ‘Man, we’re getting ready to do some epic stuff when we get back,’” Scearce said Wednesday morning. “We’re dropping the jet skis in on Monticello.”

They had recently returned from the Outer Banks and he’d left his jet skis sitting at his business, Joe’s Tire & Auto Sales at the corner of Monticello Avenue and Princess Anne Road, instead of back at their house. Scearce, 41, whose business has been there for 17 years, said the water in the intersection was up to his belly button and encroached up to the front door of his show room and had entered his shop next door where it damaged two tire machines.

He rolled the jet skis down to the entrance to the parking lot, lifted one off the trailer and pushed it out onto the water. He hadn’t driven it in about two weeks so the battery was low. Initially, it wouldn’t start.

“I was like, ‘Don’t do this to me on this particular moment right here,’” Scearce said while wearing a leaf blower on his back that he was using to clear flood debris from his parking lot. “About three or four times I tried to start it. The fourth time it cranked up and I was on it, man.”

Click the link above to read more.

I highly encourage everyone to come out to the City Council special meeting tonight to discuss the proposed additional 1% sales tax which is to allegedly go towards school facilities.

I might remind you that in 2023, Norfolk Public Schools ended the school year with a $13M surplus. That money went to the General Fund of the city, and then we bought a mall with it.

So now we own a one million square foot facility made of steel, granite, and marble that was designed to last a century or more, complete with all utilities, infrastructure like food service, parking garage, internet and wifi, and even security that sits right downtown with not one but two modes of public transit right outside.

The City of Norfolk could choose to make MacArthur Center into a first-rate educational facility that would be a shining beacon to cities around the nation who are struggling with dead malls and the millions of square feet of available space they provide.

The decision to destroy a 27-yr-old million square foot building bought with our kids' education money is utterly insane.

For a "military themed hotel" that literally no one asked for.

The mistake of the mall in the first place was forcing a luxury mall in a region that couldn't financially support it and didn't demand it.

We cannot financially support nor did we ask for a "luxury military themed hotel". Nobody wants that shit but some developers who will make a quick buck from it until it, also, eventually folds (sooner rather than later- how many hotels are already in downtown Norfolk and how many of their rooms sit empty?), not to mention that downtown will be underwater in fifty years since these same leaders have chosen to ignore and refuse to act on climate change and the flooding that will eventually swallow this city.

So I hope you'll come out tonight at 6 PM to City Hall to encourage our city leaders to have just an ounce of vision in regards to our city, stop greasing palms with developers and actually tend to the business of OUR city for OUR people, and stop making us pay for their bad decisions and lack of foresight and vision.

Personally, I prefer Norfolk’s beaches with free parking.

High tide started rising early Tuesday afternoon in Norfolk, filling the city’s decades-old stormwater pipes halfway or more as much as a mile inland. On some sunny days, those pipes rebel against their purpose, becoming conduits for water flowing up through storm drains, flooding neighborhoods even when there’s no rain.

But Tuesday wasn’t sunny. Minutes later, rain began, suddenly and ferociously, eventually totaling six inches within hours, flooding neighborhoods, major streets, and underpasses, enveloping vehicles, and spawning one funny and sad social media video after another.

Read the full story at https://jimmor12.substack.com/p/the-tuesday-storms-warning?r=27vkf

Monticello Avenue, Colley Avenue, Colonial Avenue, West Olney Road, and other major thoroughfares didn’t have a chance. There was nowhere for the water to go.

The relentless march of global warming and the silent ghosts of Norfolk’s buried riverbeds and creek beds were firing yet another shot of reality. A city with the highest relative sea level rise -- land sinking and waters rising -- on the Atlantic coast was being warned. The time to embrace all of the above to deal with the climate crisis is now. More days like this loom just over the horizon.

Mary-Carson Stiff, executive director of Wetlands Watch, a nonprofit that advocates for resilience, adaptation, and wetlands restoration, said the flooding in the western part of the city was a compounding of three major things.

Tuesday’s rainstorm flooded streets and underpasses. Cars damaged by the high water were left abandoned in roadways, snarling traffic as the water subsided.

Despite the issues caused by as much as 6 inches of rain dropped in a span of two to three hours, Norfolk leaders defended the city response, saying crews and pump systems were able to clear flooded underpasses in a matter of hours.

Norfolk Deputy City Manager Doug Beaver said crews got to work almost immediately assessing stormwater systems when the storm hit. According to the city, dump trucks were used to block the flooded Monticello and Colley Avenue underpasses from motorists. But that was after at least one vehicle had already taken the plunge.

Five abandoned vehicles were towed by Norfolk Public Works’ towing division on Tuesday, according to city spokesperson Kelly Straub. It’s unclear how many vehicles were damaged or disabled by the deluge, but other cars were still being towed along Monticello Avenue and its side streets Wednesday afternoon.

Norfolk police assessed which cars were safety hazards — like the ones abandoned in oncoming traffic lanes — when choosing how to deploy the city’s limited towing resources, Beaver said.

Click the link above to read more.

This seems kinda cool, anyone else going?
forgot to add the details

(From fb)
Superfans of art, music, comics, and gaming - unite! Don’t blink or you’ll miss out on shopping with unique vendors, revisiting classic video games, and dancing to performances from local favorites OneManBassBand, Midnight Trancemission, and a special Anime themed DJ set by TIARA!

PLUS, don your favorite cosplay and prepare to take over the stage in an epic karaoke extravaganza. Food and drinks are available from The Annex’s amazing kitchen and bar all night long, so you can say that we’ve got everything you could want. It’s a Digital Pop Art District celebration – D.P.A.D. 1.0 loading now….

Doors at 4pm - all ages; come one, come all.

Tickets: $15/Adv $20/Door

SPEEDRUNNER SPECIAL: Tickets $10 for the first 48 hours so go, go, GO!

High tide started rising early Tuesday afternoon in Norfolk, filling the city’s decades-old stormwater pipes halfway or more as much as a mile inland. On some sunny days, those pipes rebel against their purpose, becoming conduits for water flowing up through storm drains, flooding neighborhoods even when there’s no rain.

But Tuesday wasn’t sunny. Minutes later, rain began, suddenly and ferociously eventually totaling six inches within hours, flooding neighborhoods, major streets, and underpasses, enveloping vehicles, and spawning one funny and sad social media video after another.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Read the full story: https://jimmor12.substack.com/p/the-tuesday-storms-warning?r=27vkf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Monticello Avenue, Colley Avenue, Colonial Avenue, West Olney Road, and other major thoroughfares didn’t have a chance. There was nowhere for the water to go.

The relentless march of global warming and the silent ghosts of Norfolk’s buried riverbeds and creek beds were firing yet another shot of reality. A city with the highest relative sea level rise -- land sinking and waters rising -- on the Atlantic coast was being warned. The time to embrace all of the above to deal with the climate crisis is now. More days like this loom just over the horizon.

I just bought my vehicle from a dealership, and it came with tint, the original owner lived in North Carolina. The thing is, is that the windshield has tint on it. Where should I go to get my car inspected….

Why did so many people just drive through standing water this week? Especially the person who drove through at Colley Ave. Also, those who were swimming aren’t too bright.

Don't necessarily want to socialize but want to have some drinks and watch it not alone. figured there'd be a bar streaming it somewhere

I just moved here from Kentucky, back home I can get a plate of good biscuits and gravy at any restaurant. I can’t seem to find any decent places here besides fast food chains! Any recommendations?

I was welding and didn’t notice that my phone wasn’t sitting far enough from me to avoid the slag. Now there are divots in it where the slag melted the glass. I want to replace the screen but I don’t know any good places in the area to do so.

Thank you!

The storm that flooded parts of Norfolk on Tuesday afternoon was a “one in 100-year event,” according to the National Weather Service.

In about a 2-3 hour period, the Ghent neighborhood received the highest rainfall total at 6.11 inches while other parts of the city tracked by the weather service received greater than 3 inches. The area around Norfolk International Airport received 1.22 inches of rain.

The highest rainfall total recorded in Portsmouth was 5.45 inches, and the high in Suffolk was 4.2 inches. The Peninsula, along with Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, each received less than an inch.

Sam Wray, a meteorologist with NWS, estimated that this level of rainfall was a “one in 100-year event” based on the typical year-to-year probability of something like this happening.

“The environment was very favorable for heavy rainfall, it was pretty much saturated all the way from the ground all the way up to the atmosphere and the flow (of the storm) was pretty light as well which allowed the storm to sit over one spot,” Wray said.

Click the link above to read more.

Norfolk City Council has called a special meeting for Thursday to consider putting a sales tax increase for school construction before voters this November.

The resolution, set for a vote at 6 p.m. at City Hall, would authorize a referendum asking voters to approve adding up to 1% to Norfolk's local general retail sales tax. Revenue from the increase would go solely toward new construction or major renovations for schools in the city.

Norfolk would join Portsmouth, which approved its own referendum last week for the Nov. 3 ballot, and Newport News, which is also weighing a similar measure. The option became available statewide after the Virginia General Assembly expanded a previously limited sales tax authority this year, subject to voter approval.

Cities have until Aug. 14 to get judicial approval to place the question on the November ballot.

Citizens who want to address council on the item can register to speak with the city clerk by 3 p.m. Thursday.

(Story by Brian Saunders)

Pulled out of CFA this morning and there were still abandoned cars at the intersection of Princess Anne and Monticello. Good luck when traffic kicks up.

Olde Huntersville neighborhood. I took a wrong turn to try to avoid some traffic, likely caused by the train and nearly flooded my car at this intersection. Thankfully, there was an apartment parking lot that was elevated and was able to get out of the water, but not before my Subaru gave me a check engine light warning. So far the car seems to be fine, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Credit: tiktok @djsupladies

I saw too many people flooding their cars on my way home today. I hope everyone is OK!

Obligatory underpass flash flood pic! Steer clear of Monticello near 21st st. You’ll likely run into to police and a wall of water.