You know the old saying, “it rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock?” Well that is what it did here at our house, this afternoon.
We saw the storm form up in Music Valley. The rumble of thunder was constant. Never heard unending thunder like that.
Like a black curtain it soon covered Pinto Mountain. It was a solid sheet of rain moving to the north at a steady pace.
Fay and I had seen storms form like this but this one looked especially ominous.
Caltrans in its infinite wisdom has of the last couple of years purposely terminated its shoulder at our driveway. We’ve complained about the potential of flooding for years.
We did the best we could in a futile attempt to dig a trench across our driveway and as far as we could before the storm arrived.
I personally have never seen it rain so much in so short a period of time. The shoulder along the Highway soon filled to the brim and soon a huge volume of water was rushing into our yard. The 1 foot wide trench we had built did nothing to stop the deluge. We were soon a foot deep in water. our Septic Tank was undermined and soon filled with flood waters. Our well was buried by debris.
The rain was so heavy I was unable to get a breath, as I would try to breath water would enter my lungs. I was drowning in the desert. Standing there drowning.
It was over as quickly as it began. The water continued to flow for an hour and a half. We managed to divert the last million gallons by breaking a berm and channeling the water into the desert. But by that time our place was toast.
Unable to get Homeowners insurance out here we are screwed. We are going to put a claim in to Caltrans for the Damage but expect a pissing contest. This time we are going to go to the mattresses and take legal action if they do not do us right. We are not asking for much just to be made whole. Fix our septic tank, fix our well, and fix that god damned road.
Like I said we are not asking for the golden goose. After 18 deaths in the yard because of the poorly engineered road. After being flooded out, we just want to be treated with a little respect.
That’s awful Dan, I know of a similar incident up here. They sued and won.I hope you do as well. After the misery of the 2007 Grass Valley Fire the knuckle heads decided to place krails around my home without my permission. This was to protect me from a potential flood from run off from the mountain side. No residents thought they were necessary. My home had the honor of having the most in the neighborhood. 9 lined up around my home and blocking entrance to my garage. We had record rainfall 2 months after the fire but the hillsides never came close to over saturation. The genius who engineered their placement was a typical government moron. I told them I didn’t want them but they told me I didn’t have a choice. Sometime around February the snow froze to ice and now the krails had a perfect seal on the bottom, this created a dam and water that normally would run around the area was now trapped. Filled up 2 feet high and eventually into my garage and my bedroom below. I was lucky and only had minor flood damage thanks to the efforts by local fire, sheriff personal to help break a new exit for the water, that flooded my neighbor below. Why did this happen in the first place? Because some fat lard sittin on his overpaid retirement decided he knew what was best. Thats what happened to the OBrien’s. Bureaucracy kills more than guns and drugs. It’s legal thugery and we pay them to screw up our lives. Heres county crews putting them in.
Dan,
Do you need any help? Laura and I are available to assist with anything at all. The hows and whys are not important right now we just want to know that you and Fay are all okay.
Got the well going temporary….. layed out a series of heavy duty construction cords. whacked the ends off and direct wired them into the panel and pump house. The flood washed out the cables going to the pump house. Will need to trench and place about 200 ft of conduit and wire…
We have water!!
Dan – do you need any assistance? I can send over my livestock crew to help with mud retrieval that the County officials have caused in the first place! And we wonder..why our dear Hi Desert has no solid infrastructure! Our towns deserve the same treatment as the larger towns..a human is a human….I am so sorry to hear of this mud matter….PeytonPlace Madam
By the grace of the Almighty and the two of us working are fingers to the bone, we are doing ok….. We’ve got to see what Caltrans says next week. My sister says she will be happy to make them a project…. You don’t want my sister making you a project….
Dan,
You and Fay make a good team.
43 years you learn to depend on one another…..
Incident: 00045 Type: CLOSURE of a Road Location: SR62 / Godwin Rd TBM/LatLon: 34.136685 -115.931265
Detail Information
2:26 PM 5 [9] [Notification] [CHP]-PER 8745 THEY ARE HAVING A MEETING IN THE MORNING WITH A CONTRACTOR TO REPAIR THE ROADWAY, UNKWN ETO AT THIS TIME TO REOPEN, CLOSURE WILL REMAIN UNMANNED FOR NOW
5:41 AM 4 [6] 1039 ENTAC
5:38 AM 3 [5] PER 106-S2 NOTIFY ENTAC , PORTIONS OF RDWY COMPLETELY UNDER WATER , UNABLE TO GET TO THEM – ESTIMATING 24-48 HOURS AT THIS TIME
4:17 AM 2 [4] [Notification] [CHP]-PER 120714CT00003 – STARTED ABOUT 0225 – RDWY WASHED OUT – UNK DUR TO CLEAN IT DEPENDS ON HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR THE WATER TO RESEED
3:26 AM 1 [1] PER S2 CT HAS THE HWY SHUT DOWN – 106-S2 IS INQ WHEN THE RDWY WILL BE RE OPENED – WAS THRU THE AREA EARLIER TODAY AND DIDN”T APPEAR THE RDWY NEEDED A CLOSURE
Unit Information
3:26 AM 6 Unit Assigned
3:26 AM 5 Unit Enroute
3:26 AM 4 Unit At Scene
5:43 AM 3 Unit Cleared
5:41 AM 2 Unit Assigned
5:41 AM 1 Unit At Scene