The Floodgates

Its been several weeks now, but recently we had a flood here in Grays Harbor. It happened practically overnight, and caused a number of landslides, including one that closed the highway out of town. The rain the night before had not seemed any harder than usual! I actually didn't realize anything had happened until, after much grumbling about Mondays generally and 6 am in particular, I stepped out onto my porch. My car in the open garage had water up nearly to its bottom. The porch felt like a wooden raft afloat in a lake! That is when I noticed the several calls from work, removing the need to come in.

Since it was clearly too dangerous to come into work, the best thing to do was get outside, as soon as possible! The streets outside were lakes in some places rivers in others and sometimes practically as usual. Two steps in the same directing could plunge you into very different depths. Gulls were resting on the water where cars would normally dash past. 

We had a lot of fun exploring the suddenly bizarre landscape, but it was much less fun for many people. No one was hurt in the landslide that covered the highway, but houses in the next town over filled with water, or were covered in the backyards of houses further up the hills. 

This is the sidewalk in front of my house! It almost looks like a landscape from a plane.

The regular waterways were swollen too, and choked with debris from the flooding.

We walked up the closed off highway to see the landslide. Trees had crossed the four lanes and begun to slide down the hill into the park below. It was interesting and eerie to walk slowly somewhere you normally speed past, looking at things in detail.

This particular hill has had several slides over the years. It is called Think of Me Hill, and used to have many houses on its sides. A long time ago, in the nineteen forties I believe (but I have had difficulty finding information except from older folks who remember) there was a massive slide that destroyed a number of houses. Climbing up it away from the path you can find pottery and mason jars, tools and bricks partially unburied by yet more erosion. It makes me wonder what this place, which is never fully tamed by people, will look like in the future.