HOLY CRAP!

What is it about adventures that follow me around like disaster
follows Frank??

The news reports that yesterday, Hong Kong was hit by a record 13,000
lightning bolts in one hour. I was watching it from my front porch,
pretty sure it was one of the most amazing lightning shows I had ever
seen....until tonight. We had bolts hitting the trees in our yard, and
the rain was coming down in torrential sheets for several hours.

SWMBO and I have moved out to a small, remote beach community, where
we have a nice 1-story house beside of a small stream. We have a nice
little yard and a tidy little cement wall about 3 feet high rimming
the yard between us and the small stream, which is about 5 feet below
our property level. Out front is a gateway arch with a tidy wooden
door.

Did I say small stream? I was watching the lightning, and SWMBO says
"wow, look at how high the stream is getting!" It was already up to
the base of the wall, about 4 feet higher than normal, and within
about 1 minute, it was suddenly cresting the wall and filling the
yard. SWMBO was mesmerized, but I yelled "help me move stuff off the
floor!! We only have about 1 minute before it floods the house!!" so
she leapt into action, and we scooped up everything below knee-level
and stacked it on the table, the counter, the couch, the TV
cabinet....anywhere we could. Then we stood there and watched as the
water in the yard rose higher, and higher, and rose over our front
porch, over our hot tub, over our front steps, the front mat floated
away, the front steps floated away, the water crept up to the
threshold, it crept up to the bottom of the glass door......

And at that moment, a flash of lightning showed me that our gateway
door had blown shut, and the water was pooled in our yard against it.
So I ran out into the storm, wading about knee-deep in the sticks,
snakes, brush and water, and pulled the front gate open. The water
instantly started to flood out the door, joining the raging stream
that was already flowing down the sidewalk (and unfortunately, out our
neighbor's front door). This proved to be the act that allowed the
flooded stream to drain out our front entrance and not come in the
house, as the water level started to drop immediately. I stood at the
doorway and caught the hot tub cover, some yard tools, the cat and a
few odds and ends that were washing out with the water.

After the rain subsided, I took a short walk through the neighborhood.
We got lucky; some houses look like a bulldozer shoved a gravel bar up
against them. The car park got flooded...about 100 cars with water in
the footwells and some shifted out of position, but fortunately, our
car is high clearance so we were ok. Rumors are circulating that the
only road out to civilization is washed out...we'll find out
tomorrow.

But meantime, watch the news for stories about Hong Kong flooding and
another record-breaking lightning storm.

Yee hah.

--riverman