system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does 11 inches of rain equate to devastating floods.

Recently the 11 inches of rain in Houston, Texas caused massive flooding. Floods which carried cars away and covered houses. I'm just trying to understand how XX inches can turn into XX feet of water.
gpt
Eleven inches is a lot of rain. When it comes in a short amount of time, it exceeds the capacity of the rivers to drain it out to the sea.

Think about your bathtub. The faucet puts water in, and the drain takes water out. It's designed so that the drain can remove the water at least as fast as the faucet can put it in.

But imagine if, all of a sudden, the amount of water that came out of the faucet quadrupled, and you couldn't turn it off. What would happen? Your house would get flooded. Part of your house that never get wet would get soaked.

That's what happens in a flood situation. The rain falls faster than nature can remove it.