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Thursday, January 6, 2022

KING TIDES AND MOTHER NATURE’S WHIMS

‘Five Feet High & Risin’ 

The PNW has had 2 king tides back-to-back, barely giving pause as waterways tried to ebb back out to sea.

Then, Mother nature decided to ‘bless’ us with an early snowfall – and follow that up with the annual monsoon season; heaviest rainfall in January and February months.

Transplants from other states are not dealing with any of this very well; like overgrown Chicken Little’s, they watch the rising lowland flood waters, the highland snowfall, and the heavy rainfall … and run around screaming, “’Climate change!’; aka, ‘The sky is falling.’” Nothing out of the ordinary is happening, but it would seem like it to people from drier regions of the planet that have been shipped here/flown here at taxpayer’s expense, or were paid to infiltrate WA and preach obamanite propaganda.

That said … flooded areas do look pretty intense at the moment. But, I’ve lived through worse, in various regions of the PNW.

However, as of now (in the moment), Lewis County, Cowlitz County, and Wahkiakum County; are all under Flood Warning as waters continue to rise.

All communities are pretty much land-locked until the waters recede: every available waterway is backed up with escalated rainfall and rapidly melting snow due to continual rainfall: and saturated soils are on the move – there have been several significant landslides/downed trees across roads in every county mentioned that is blocking road routes that water has not already submerged.

I braved the weather to drive downtown to the post office around noon – I drove past the Lake. I saw that the lake was muddied, but I did not see that the lower hiking trails had been covered with a great deal of lake water; I didn’t see that until I checked my FB Page and saw a friend’s post, showing the flooded footpaths.

Flooding at Lake Sacajawea; Longview. I walk this trail often.
Westside Highway slide cleanup; Castle Rock.
Flooding of Camelot community, across the river; Castle Rock.
Powell & Bond Roads; Castle Rock.
Even the elk in the upper end of Wahkiakum County are dealing with high water.

I was glad to get back home, and parked under the carport.

It seemed like all the half-brainer’s were burning up the highway today, at top speed … and impatiently pressing tailgates of those obeying speed signs and practicing road safety in weather like we’re experiencing.

Rule of thumb in weather like this is to pay attention to your surroundings: be on the lookout for falling debris, drainage overflow, flooded roadways, and landslides – even driving through Longview!

Vehicles can hydroplane on slick blacktop.

Drainage overflows can cover eroded blacktop that had experienced prior road damage. Erosion can widen fissures, and deepen potholes.

Longview is built on landfill – all the topsoil is shifty in saturating weather … trees and powerlines will lean and fall if severe weather undermines their standing.

There are hillsides in Longview; those hillsides get saturated, and are topped with heavy trees.

TURN LIGHTS ON AND DRIVE 5 to 10 MILES UNDER SPEED LIMIT.

Things are worse this year because of the king tides and early snowfall; but things have been a lot worse, too, in years past.

However …

I do not plan on going too far afield from home until Spring – probably mid- to late Spring given the widespread flooding that will take time to sink away: and time for the counties to do repair work.

Oh, goodie! MORE road work to look forward to when people start getting out and about, around March sometime. NOT.

When Bob was still here, and I’d get cabin fever with itching feet in the Winter months, Bob would always say, “Wait ‘til Spring, Val. It’s coming sooner than you feel it.” And I trusted him: all of his life was dealing with nature’s elements – if he said ‘wait’ … I waited 😉

So, that is my mantra now when I am feeling the walls close in – and watching Mother Nature whipping up a tempest.

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