From Drought To Flood...

How quickly situations can change. Days ago we were without personal water for over 3 weeks. That adventurous dilemma was finally resolved with a new well pump. And now for the past 3 days it has been raining non-stop, and we've had serious local flooding around the county. We have gone from one extreme to another... 

The Well Drilling & Service guy came out Monday to trouble shoot the problem,  and after a while determined that the pump in the well had burned itself out. The conclusion was that the pipes leading from the well to the pump house had probably froze over and/but the pump kept on trying to pump, and was meeting an obvious resistance...  Apparently the pump would have stopped trying to pump if it met resistance from the pump house to the residence, but not if it was meeting with said resistance from the other end. I don't know... But we do have our blessed water back and showers, laundry and dishes are back on line ;-) 

And now we're having another unprecedented event... ton's of rain. Day 3 of non-stop rain, on top of all our melting snow,  is flooding the entire area. Granted the Pacific Northwest is known for rain, but everyone around here is saying that this amount is unusual for this time of year. Any way,  I ventured out yesterday to go to the local IGA for some snacky things and began to discover just what was happening in our immediate area. And so the story begins....

Woke to find our meadow had flooded over night. Now this is official 'wetlands' and though you can't tell... a small stream traverses the far tree line, from left to right and then follows the fence line towards the gate pictured here... and goes under the road via a culvert, to the woods on the right. As you can see... it's a little backed up.

 
So into the Jeep I went and headed into town... I now realize that my pic's are out of order but Oh Well ;-)  This one was actually taken on my way back from the general store in Acme. I was going the other way on our road but it was blocked by a small 'slide' ... I'll come to that one later. There is a tree nursery on the left here and a 'river' of mud & water had just washed through the property... The soil around here is actually quite light and permeable... but this deluge was just too much... too fast.

  
And here's the source of the trouble... 'A river runs through it...'  Many people along our road, and in the county, have woken to find themselves in this predicament... 

This is another property on our road...  And another torrent of water finding it's way to the path of least resistance... This is actually some body's front yard. 

This is a continuation from the pic above... Don't think they're getting the paper any time soon... 

I was on my way to the town of Deming when I passed this big guy walking in the pouring rain wearing a hardhat and carrying a small tool bag. I initially thought he was with the city, and that he was just walking the road, checking on the power lines or something.  But after a 1/4 mile I didn't see a truck parked anywhere so I turned around and went back to see if he needed a ride. Yes he did... He told me that he had to leave his truck behind at a friends because of the 'slide'... I didn't get it at the time because he didn't say, landslide... he just said 'slide'. Then he was talking about the other roads that were out, but since I'm new here, I didn't recognize where he was talking about and I was just lost in the conversation. Any way, I did the neighborly thing and took Darryl M. home... real nice guy... He would have had a very long walk. And this is why Darryl couldn't drive home... and why I had to turn around and go the other way.....  A 'slide'. 

So going the only other way out... now on my way towards the tiny town of Acme... more flood waters finding their way to sea level... It's was just coming down and out of the woods all along the way. Nothing dangerous mind you...  just pretty impressive.

 
At all the major dips in the road, water just flooded and sat there. This stretch was maybe 200 feet long, but only about 5-6 inches deep on the far left side. 'Trippy'... but not treacherous. 

Just passing the river, where the water line was inches from cresting the banks... and over the bridge leading to Acme... Voila La,  the biggest flood I'd personally come across. It starts at my bumper and ends at that truck in the far distance. The water was moving slowly and I reasoned that it hadn't washed out the road underneath... so I ventured on. It was probably about 1.5 feet deep or so... Trucks and Jeeps would have no trouble... but cars on the other hand were out of the question. I entered the general store and they were bustling... Some people just sitting around, and some getting last minute food stuffs & catching the latest info on road closures, washouts, etc. The store keeps in touch via a radio scanner and from the locals. Turns out many of the people there were stranded... Hwy. 9 no. which is another way to get to Deming & out of town, was closed... and 9 so. would soon be due to more, imminent washouts. It was all very surreal really... just like in the movies ;-)  Anyway, I gathered my food stuffs when an older woman approached me and asked me which direction I was heading. Seems she had been stranded there since 5 am :-?   Again, not familiar with the surrounding area and not understanding just where she lived... I told her I'd give her a lift to 'where ever'... Turns out, she lives far away, but she just needed to get to the next big town with a bus depot. From there, family could pick her up... so off we went, Pam & I.  Hwy 9 so. was besought with flooding... every 3 miles or so, water and debris littered the roadway... but again, nothing any where near serious for my beloved Jeep. Road workers along the way were putting up detour & road closed signs... And since I didn't have any bearings on time or distance... the journey felt like it would never end. In the back of my mind, I reminded myself that it was the 'Christian' thing to do, but I couldn't help but think that maybe I wouldn't be able to make it back home myself... After all, they were talking about the road I was on would soon be impassable, and we did witness some serious erosion going on.  40 mins later, I was able to safely drop Pam off, one step closer to home. She smiled and blessed me... and disappeared into the depot.

But in the end it was just another test... Not thinking that because I was doing a 'noble deed' that 'God' wouldn't leave me stranded.  But a lesson about staying positive in the 'moment' ... and not clouding what had yet to pass, with fear & worry. I was worrying about the future and wasting energy on a scenario that hadn't happened... Instead of nourishing the present with Faith... faith in that with what ever happens... everything will always work out just fine. it's all in how you choose to look at it!   "I am always with thee" and "Fear is of the earth"...   :-)