Why roof gutters are useless in Texas

The thunderstorm we’d been awaiting since Monday finally crashed in yesterday afternoon just as I was getting ready to leave to go pick up Mr. B. from school. A real frog strangler. All I had was Mom’s puny little umbrella, so I got soaked. But before I left I was standing in the living room watching the rain cascade off the roof. It was like being behind a waterfall. The rain was overwhelming the roof gutters which reminded me why most people in Central Texas, at least, never put gutters on their houses until fairly recently. Nowadays the Yellow Pages is full of gutter seller ads, and practically everybody seems to have them. But they really are pretty useless. Oh, it sometimes rains lightly around here and the gutters effectively channel the water so it doesn’t splash on your head as you go in and out the door. But, more often, when we get a rain it’s a big one, and the gutters simply can’t handle all that water all at once.