‘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.
