: Blogging the Flood, 2005

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:02:37 GMT

FRIDAY CAT

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:44:15 GMT

Epilog: A new bridge over Thoms Creek. Phase one: this time, higher up (note the concrete supports) and farther back.

Tue, 24 May 2005 18:43:23 GMT

Tue, 24 May 2005 18:43:12 GMT

Fri, 13 May 2005 00:21:49 GMT

Ponds more or less (less) intact:

Pasture revealed...

Llamas getting Zen:

Tue, 10 May 2005 22:39:21 GMT

FLOOD WARNING FOR THE PIT RIVER AT CANBY HAS BEEN EXTENDED THROUGH 500 PM PDT WEDNESDAY. A FLOOD WARNING HAS BEEN EXTENDED FOR MODOC COUNTY THROUGH 500 PM PDT WEDNESDAY. RECENT RAINS & MELTING SNOW HAVE RESULTED IN FLOODING ON THE PIT RIVER AS WELL AS RISES IN THE CREEKS & STREAMS THAT FEED THE PIT RIVER. AT 215 PM PDT THE PIT RIVER AT CANBY WAS AT 8.5 FEET. THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO RECEDE VERY SLOWLY. SEVERAL ROADS & AREAS OF FARMLAND ARE INUNDATED AT THIS TIME & ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN SO FOR A FEW DAYS.

Tue, 10 May 2005 17:38:26 GMT

8 a.m.

10 a.m.

Mon, 09 May 2005 18:36:01 GMT

FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FOR THE PIT RIVER AT CANBY. RECENT HEAVY RAINS COMBINED WITH SNOWMELT HAS CAUSED LARGE RISES IN THE PIT RIVER. THE PIT RIVER AT CANBY IS EXPECTED TO EXCEED A STAGE LEVEL OF 8.5 FEET LATER THIS AFTERNOON. THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN ABOVE THE 8.5 FOOT LEVEL FOR AT LEAST A FEW DAYS. SEVERAL ROADS & AREAS OF FARMLAND ARE INUNDATED AT THIS TIME & ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN SO FOR A FEW DAYS.

Mon, 09 May 2005 18:22:44 GMT

AND THEN THE SNOW CAME

Mon, 09 May 2005 01:40:29 GMT

6:30 p.m. Day 3

Mon, 09 May 2005 00:31:04 GMT

Cavalry arrived just as I was at my lowest ebb. Self-pity swallowing me up. N turned up at the door in rain slicker with walking stick, and I crawled back into outdoor gear, followed him out, tracked the llamas down. Herded them in easily. Just one other person. That's all I needed. Then we put up barriers, hiked over here and found a healthy roll of barbed wire, fenceposts, back to the pasture and past the defeated disloyal ungrateful grouchy camellids, me grouchier in my blisters and aches than anyone, and in the drenching rain we put up a tight two strands of barbed wire across the gaps. No more escapes from that direction. There's another gap up here where the bridge was washed out, but the mud is too deep yet to repair it. I hope that Fernando and Lorenzo will avoid deep mud until tomorrow, when maybe I can throw down old pieces of plywood here and there and reach the gap to fill it in with more posts and wire.

Sun, 08 May 2005 19:47:12 GMT

Couldn't get the llamas back through after running around them with my brother, who doesn't understand what we're doing. I had him empty the collapsed stone jack. I worked on the fence all morning, mud sucking at my shins every step. Rain intermittant. Finally sealed it off. Llamas staying near. I made a gate opening for them, left Brian there with the tools, and trekked back around and out and across the bridge and back over home. Made lunch. Coffee. Phone call. No one home to help. Back down to bridge and around and back to Brian. Gave him sandwiches. Llamas visible about 1/2 mile north on the road. Hike out and around and downhill toward them. Sweet-talking through clenched teeth. Chasing. Herding. So close. Swerving. Back. Chasing. Herding. Close. Swerving. Llamas running upslope along the fenceline. Me running out and around but not outpacing them. At the end of the fence line they turned south and up and up and gone. I hope they like their new home. I'm headed for shower. Band-aids. Hot tea and blankets and Kleenex. Later: Sniffling. It's pouring out. For a while I could see the llamas back our way, on the slope, grazing. There's no way for them to get back into the pasture from that side. I have to dress and go out and down to the bridge and over and back and open the gate at this end so they can go in. And run to the far side to close the gap I left open there when we were herding. Miles of running. And I can't move. I hurt all over and I can't move. And now I don't see them anymore. And the rain is falling steadily. If I novelized this in the third person it would be a ripping yarn. But because I'm first person, and it's real, and it's Mother's Day, and and and it's just pathetic. I apologize.

Sun, 08 May 2005 16:26:32 GMT

9 a.m.: Day 3

Sun, 08 May 2005 16:19:01 GMT

From yesterday:

Sat, 07 May 2005 21:27:43 GMT

A SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY HAS BEEN ISSUED UNTIL 500 AM PDT SUN FOR THOM'S CREEK & JOSEPH CREEK ON THE WEST CNTL SLOPES OF THE WARNER MOUNTAINS. THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN MEDFORD HAS ISSUED A SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY EFFECTIVE UNTIL 500 AM PDT SUN FOR THOM'S CREEK AND JOSEPH CREEK 0N THE WEST CNTL SLOPES OF THE WARNER MOUNTAINS. MODOC COUNTY OFFICIALS HAVE REPORTED EXTENSIVE SMALL STREAM FLOODING IN THIS AREA. SNOWMELT WILL CONTINUE TO FEED THE STREAMS.& MORE PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP SUNDAY.

Sat, 07 May 2005 18:02:06 GMT

Haytime

On the way, I found balsamroot coming up everywhere, blossoming, even, here next to Fernando. Not Mule's ears, but real balsamroot, the first I've seen since I moved to Modoc in '99.

Sat, 07 May 2005 17:56:36 GMT

Big Picture, 10:30 a.m.

Sat, 07 May 2005 16:30:45 GMT

A long sleep, such weariness.
At 7:30 I saw the water had receded two feet.
At 8, down ten.
The clouds made an opening for the sun at 9.
Four geese paddled around the flooded pasture, happy.
The llamas, calmer today, stay up in the junipers.
The fences are gone from three sides of their enclosure.
The big pond has a gap now where the waters streamed over all yesterday.
The great heavy clouds move on rapid currents, eastward.
I'll have to fashion slings to carry hay if I have to do much slipping along the slope to the dry feeding place.
N. will drive me out from his side of the torrent so I can mail my book orders, fetch my paycheck, send rent and deposit to North Carolina, as promised, though late.
I don't know how I'll keep the llamas here once the water level falls.
I hope tomorrow's predicted storm is an unreliable rumor.
Today's photos here.

Sat, 07 May 2005 16:30:08 GMT

7:30 a.m.: Day 2

8:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

THE SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY FOR THE WARNER MTNS & FOOTHILLS STREAMS & CREEKS HAS BEEN CANCELED. SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL HAS ENDED IN MODOC COUNTY. LOCALIZED FLOODING DUE TO THE ACCELERATED MELTING OF SNOWPACK FROM WARM RAINS WILL TAPER OFF CONSIDERABLY TODAY WITHOUT ADDITIONAL RAINFALL.

Sat, 07 May 2005 01:59:26 GMT

SPOTTERS IN THE SURPRISE VALLEY HAVE REPORTED LWRING WATER LEVELS IN CREEKS & STREAMS. THIS TREND WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT & SATURDAY AS SKIES CLEAR & DRIER AIR MOVES INTO THE REGION. THE FLOOD THREAT MAY RETURN ON SUN AS ANOTHER STORM MOVES INTO NORTHERN CA. RAINFALL FROM THIS SYSTEM SHOULD REACH NORTHEAST CA & NW NV BY LATE SUN AFTERNOON. SINCE THE SOIL IS WET FROM RAINFALL OVER THE LAST 24 HRS.CREEKS AND STREAMS WILL RISE ONCE THE RAINFALL BEGINS. RESIDENTS ARE URGED TO CLOSELY MONITOR WATER LEVELS & STAY TUNED TO FORECASTS & STATEMENTS FROM THE NATL WEATHER SVC.

Sat, 07 May 2005 01:52:11 GMT

I'm going to try and keep myself from compulsively snapping photos. A neighbor I'd never met--Lonnie--drove up on a four-wheeler. He said he'd phoned the sheriff's office and told them he'd check on everyone. There are twelve of us stranded this side of the washout, he said. My neighbors downstream--Mike and Debbie and their daughter--are stranded on the other side of the gap. They have a huge flock of goats and many llamas at their place, which is under water: Lonnie said he thought they might lose their house; the foundations are going. I don't know what's going to happen to their animals. Lonnie said he'd promised to check on them. N. was over earlier in the day--walked in over the ridge and I showed him where to cross the neighbor's intact footbridge. He took photos of my situation at the washed-out bridge and ponds. He said if his own connection to the highway doesn't wash out overnight (water's six inches below his bridge, and rising), and if the neighbor's footbridge is still there, he will drive us out of here tomorrow if we need anything. He's contacting Lonnie now to tell him the same thing, for the rest of the strandees. For now, we are warm and dry, and the well isn't in jeopardy. The llamas finally went up to the trees.

Sat, 07 May 2005 01:21:53 GMT

6:15 p.m.

Sat, 07 May 2005 00:27:49 GMT

The road is washed out between here and the highway. Completely washed out. I drove down there to check. Creek roaring through a 40-foot gap, no warning signs up or roadblocks. When I got back I called the sheriff's office to see whether there was a private property owner who might be providing access to cross property to a highway, but they didn't know. They took my phone number so they could keep tabs on me. Then I had to figure out a way to reach the llamas with food. For morale, if nothing else. I want them calm. They're very anxious, have been pacing all day, in the muck--very unusual. They keep staring up at their dry hillside beds under the junipers but they won't go up there. I'm wondering whether there might not be a predator taking refuge up there keeping them away. This whole flood thing, and the down fences, has them really upset.
I trudged over to the abandoned shack upstream. Hasn't been lived in for 20 years.
The bridge there is holding, so far. They were smart and built it up on stones at either end to raise it. Then I found the only way to reach the llamas was to scale the steep muddy ridge side around the water at one point. I slid partway into the drink just before I reached them and my wading boots filled with water and I was drenched to the waist. Yuck.
Called them over and they stepped right up, wet and nervous.
The main pond (compare and compare and compare). On the way back:

Middle pond.
Where the water usually enters--two small ponds--now one wide river to cross. If we get a gap in the rain--predicted to continue through Wednesday--I'll drag a bale of hay over there for them. Might have to break it up and pack it over in sections there at the end. Well, this is an interesting development.

Sat, 07 May 2005 00:09:40 GMT

That's me! and my creek--Thoms Creek
THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN MEDFORD HAS ISSUED A SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY FOR THE WARNER MTNS & FOOTHILLS & STREAMS AND CREEKS NEARBY UNTIL 9 AM PDT SATURDAY. FLOODING HAS BEEN REPORTED IN THE THOMS CREEK AREA. SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE TO FALL OVER MELTING SNOW THIS EVENING. TAPERING OFF AFTER DARK. ANY RAIN THAT FALLS WILL CONTINUE TO MELT SNOW PACK IN THE WARNER MOUNTAINS.BRINGING ADDITIONAL WATER FLOWING DOWN STREAMS & CREEKS.

Sat, 07 May 2005 00:04:26 GMT

5 p.m.