Montgomery, Alabama – Hackers did not breech data centers from AT&T, Verizon, Hewlett Packard, Google or otherwise cause the mystical IT cloud to crash. Rather, some residents of this southern metropolis of 375,000 people were treated to the rare scene of the bottom literally falling out of a cloud. A webcam for the city captured footage of a rain cloud passing over the heart of the city. All of a sudden, the bottom falls out of the cloud as if someone pulled a release lever and as aptly stated in the Disney classic “Winnie the Pooh”: “the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down”. Over the period of a few minutes the same scene repeated itself across different parts of the city.
The episode certainly adds new meaning to the term “cloudburst”. It all happened quickly. One moment, the skyline is picturesque and calm and the next minute a neighborhood is deluged with water. It is a condition that residents of Georgia and Alabama are all too familiar with due to the convergence of strong air currents. What was all the more interesting is that as the rain spigots were shut off, the cloud would seemingly clear itself away revealing wonderful sunlight and clear skies once more. The downpour was said to last roughly twenty minutes in all.
Montgomery has been receiving torrential rains as of late with heavy downpours cutting out power to 500 homes just last month. Thankfully, nearby Catoma Creek has not received any increase in water that it couldn’t handle. Officials expressed relief that no flooding had been reported. At that time, flash flood warnings had been issued and the local government activated fire & rescue teams in flood boats, but they were not needed. The last time there was major flooding in the state was the result of Hurricane Alberto in 1994.