Lubbock Just Got Slammed by Rain—and the City Wasn’t Ready

Yesterday, Lubbock experienced a deluge. It was short—but it rained buckets.

From the Airport to the Loop: A Waterlogged Adventure

I traveled down I-27 from the Lubbock Business Park and Airport area to the South Loop. It was a wild, wet adventure.

It looked like there was just one giant cloud in the sky—and that single cloud dumped more rain on Lubbock than I’ve seen in recent memory.

Rain So Intense, Drivers Pulled Over

Around the Interstate and 19th Street, so much rain was coming down that people were pulling over and stopping on the Loop. No one's windshield wipers could keep up.

Then, all of a sudden, it was gone. The skies cleared to reveal puffy white clouds, like the opening scene from The Simpsons. But about 40 minutes later, the same storm hit South Lubbock, at least near Quaker and the Loop.

The water got so deep, so fast, that it came was out ten feet from the curbs. Traffic on the Loop stopped again. We pulled into Walmart through a dip in the road that had to be two feet deep—just to wait it out.

Lubbock's Stormwater Plan Is a Joke

Lubbock’s plan for stormwater is for it to “flow” into the area’s playa lakes. This “plan” is actually listed on your utility bills as a “storm water fee.” Doesn’t anybody else feel like they’re being gaslighted by this?

This isn’t a real plan—and it certainly isn’t one worth charging for.

Read More: What Does Lubbock Really Need? 

Just imagine: everything above happened in less than 30 to 40 minutes. What happens to Lubbock if this goes on for a few hours… or a few days? Lubbock has come up woefully short in planning for serious rainfall, and it’s going to come back and bite the city at some point.