The Great Flood of 2009

On an average day, this is what it looks like out our front door. (This photo is from last summer.)

This is what it looked like at 7:15 a.m. today. Flash floods hit our area again, but this year’s is by far the worst we’ve seen. When all is normal, a large culvert pipe runs under our road and comes out under the forsythia bush. Two mountain streams and ditch line typically feed into the culvert pipe. In the previous picture, the red truck is just on the other side of the culvert. The culvert couldn’t handle today’s rains.

Looking left up the road.

Looking right down the road.

Looking across the road at more streams on the farm.

Water coming around the forsythia bush. Normally it should only be coming out from underneath it.

Mandy wasn’t too thrilled about getting wet feet walking across the road.

But after the water went down, she realized that flood waters leave all sorts of fun things behind.

Not so pretty, but this about two feet worth of river rock and silt left behind. 
See that bit of grass sticking out to the left of the ditch line? That’s the normal ground level, pre silt and river rock.
Stay tuned for photos of our adventure down the road (The Great Flood of 2009, part 2). I’ll probably put them up tomorrow because I’m beat – my in-laws basement flooded and we spent hours dealing with that water.
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Oh my.
I don’t envy you the basement water. My parents used to flood a lot. That’s hard work.
Glad to hear your house is ok.
Oh my gosh! Floods just are not nice to deal with as they do so much damage. Anytime water gets in the house it is a pain but flooding brings in the dirt and all kinds of other stuff then when the water recedes leaves the conditions for moulding. I really don’t envy you at all. I hope the damage was very minimal to your in-laws basement. I will keep you and your family in my prayers as you clean up from this.
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