Rain, Rain, Lots of Rain

For many of you who live in arid states  like Arizona for instance, you can't imagine how much rain can fall up here in coastal Washington and the winds that blow can knock a grown man or in our case yesterday, a semi truck over.

How much rain did you ask?  We got 4.5" in less than 24 hours and that my friends is a heck of a lot of rain.

Now, this is NOT my home, but it is typical of the homes in our area that are built in what locals call the flats.  This is water all the way up to their front steps and some homes keep sand bags close by because if you live in the flats sooner or later you are going to need them.

There was no accounting for crazies yesterday, as I was sitting in our local produce stand parking lot (a fete in itself due to water being over the roadway and past the bottom of my van door in the street. You had people driving through this stuff at 40-45 MPH like the streets were dry!

This is the street leading to the hill to get to my home.  The water has engulfed over half the road, the tan home on the left has a beautiful yard that was under 3' of water. Luckily for us, someone once told us that a wise man builds his home on the rock and up high in this area!

This is the park in town where our Cub Scouts cross over to Boy Scouts and you would have needed a boat or not be afraid to swim the murky waters to get anywhere near this area yesterday.

High winds accounted for this truck being over on its side and luckily nothing was hurt. Sadly for those of us who live here, this is the only way out of town from the south side or some of the beach areas without having to drive another road which oft times is covered with debris and closed.  It always worries me that if we had a real disaster so many people would die waiting to get over the river!

Lastly this was one of our church members vehicles, while driving with her 2 children in the car, the roadway just gave away because the river runs under it.  Luckily she nor her children were hurt but her car is a bit bruised and banged up!

That is what happens when you get 4.5" of rain in a short period of time.  Wait a minute, we have another storm coming in today...life of living on the coast!