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Thursday night brought 4-1/2″ of rain.
My neighbor asked if I wanted to go looky-looing on Friday morning. Her car is higher than mine, and I immediately replied YES.
She manages a vacation rental on the North Fork. This is the view from the backyard at the normally mild fork that often dries up in the summer.
This is the North Fork flowing over the top of the Airport Bridge (there used to be an airport nearby). The whitewater is where the water hits the railing that the county used to remove when floods were predicted. Now they prefer to leave the railings up, which causes the water to flow around and wash out the approaches. This happened in January. Here we go again.
This is by my studio and workshop.
Later in the afternoon I went walking with another neighbor to survey the ongoing excitement and damages. This usually dry drainage was roaring over the road by her house, so we went another direction.
Same drainage, farther down, closer to the river.
Looking upstream from the Dinely Bridge.
Looking downstream on the Dinely Bridge.
No, really, LOOK AT THIS!!
Pretty little drainage coming off Edison Road.
In a friend’s yard, where the water is usually a bit of a distance away. Not so today.
This is a spot where lots of people trespass at the river on this little beach. We could hear boulders banging around beneath the current.
Another little drainage along Kaweah River Drive. This is where overflow from the flume occasionally flows.
A yard where the flume flows is very exciting right now.
Well, oops. This is where we turned around. There was a roaring stream across the road. I tested it with a stick, and it was about a foot and a half deep.
Looking upstream at this drainage, wondering where it came from. A man who lived above was out walking and explained that someone built a pond incorrectly, the dam on it broke, and the result is that many people are trapped on the other side.
Walking back, you can see that the water is very close to the road. In the early 2000s, I saw it closer. I was scared then, and I shouted at my neighbor who was driving, “GO FORWARD, GO BACK, OR LET ME OUT, BUT DON’T JUST STOP HERE!”
What’s this??
Mandatory evacuations.
This is the view upcanyon from the Remorial Building. I said “Remorial” because another neighbor thought that was the correct pronunciation when she was a child. She is getting married in 21 days, but we still pronounce it that way.
A sheriff was going through the neighborhood around 7 p.m. last night to tell us about evacuation orders. But Trail Guy met him at the bottom of the driveway and said no, we aren’t going anywhere. The sheriff gathered our name, phone numbers, address, and went on his way. Our house was built before the ’55 flood, so we feel fine.
