Thursday, September 17, 2009

Flash Flood!

It rained pretty good overnight, but since we've been a couple of weeks without serious rain it left nothing in the wash. Late this morning we got more, causing M and I to head home after only a short session of burying water line (Whew! Saved!) Then we were getting together for lunch and there was a sound of ... what? Maybe the wind, but we know what wind sounds like. Maybe a distant train, but it didn't sound like that. And maybe it was distant running water. Lots of running water.

A few minutes later, sure enough! The biggest flash flood I've ever personally seen the start of swept through the wash. Little Bear, of course, ran to see what all the commotion was about and was right in the path of it, but clearly not so very sure it was a good place for him to be because for once he instantly obeyed a command to "Come here!" Moments later, this:



I wondered if I was going to be searching for my pistol range's target stand downstream, but as it happened the water never climbed very high and so (this time) it just lapped the bases of the targets. Wouldn't be the first time we've lost stuff downstream in our "dry" wash, though.

These things can trap you at home, or they can trap you away from home. During the monsoon season, we tend to time our trips to town by the condition of the washes.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

ya know, if you had a dock you could take your boat out....ok, so you'd need a boat, too.....

Joel said...

Hee, hee! I'm told we've got a dock. Though it's currently a porch.

CaptGooch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CaptGooch said...

Silly thing can't spell now where were we ?

Oh Yes ....

I was wondering with all of that water how much concrete and rebar would it take to build a cistern in the base of the river bed so you could capture most of that ...
What ? Did I say something ?



Freak a person out the first time a dry wash runs four feet deep and twenty miles an hour with no warning .... lemme tell you ....