No, it didn't snow in Richmond yet. This is Battery Park, a beautiful series of sports facities in a valley lined with winding stone pathways and stairs. In early fall, the entire park was flooded twice after heavy rains. The valley gets narrower a few thousand feet up. There the water filled the entire space creating what seemed like a lake, except the lake was stinky and filthy and flooded out many homes and residences.

The cause? To the right in both photos, there is an old landfill, right in the middle of a residential area. The drainage pipe carrying water under the landfill collapsed, and all of the water had little place to go. After both floodings, the pump dried the park out after several days, leaving a muddy residue over the entire landscape. Now that has been covered with something else, perhaps lime.

Heavy stones create interesting walkways all over the park; this is now all fenced off. The orange pumps carry water snaking in tubes at least half a mile away, to another valley.