All you folks in other parts of the country who mock Californians for freaking out over the slightest rainstorm, kindly note the following:
a) Suck it, jealous losers.
b) The picture above is of the main (only) north-south coastal freeway along the entire state; hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cars, travel some part of it daily, and the only alternative is about two hundred miles inland. Please notice that, erm, it is down to one crawling northbound lane and very limited southbound traffic. To the right of the picture, beyond the freeway, that is the ocean – right there.
c) This is just one example. Multiply this by lots and lots of incidents. This is why Californians freak out over the slightest rain. Plus it messes up our hair.
If the boundaries of the break-away Californias could be drawn along one of the state's notorious No-Fault Lines, such as the San Andreas Vollenweider Rift, then the next of the state's famous mudslides could deposit one of the new states neatly into the Pacific Ocean without requiring reapportionment.
On one of the rare occasions when it rains in California, the astonishing result, despite decades of "environmental protection," none of it involving the planting of trees that might be non-indigenous and would have to be removed at the owner's expense, is that the land turns to Silly Putty and entire subdivisions undergo Urban Relocation, as Mother Nature in her striped suit throws the yellow flag and backs everything up fifteen yards for encroachment. Expressways likewise experience a spontaneous lane shift without benefit of construction cones.
When a mudslide occurs, those living where the mud was telephone their first responders, who send camera crews to document the panic and horror of backyard sundials and nude statues being buried under cubic feet of cubist mud. The footage may lead on the Six-O'Clock News, especially if children burst into tears. On the larger mudslides, a general alarm may bring larger crews up from Hollywood to start work on a feature film. In the modern era, residents may be too busy filming the cataclysm to put on their social web page so that additional people will like them, to turn their phones around and call for help.
Although, I probably shouldn't mock, since the spot on the 101 where this story is talking about, La Conchita, experienced a horrific mudslide ten years ago that literally in seconds, in the middle of the night buried several houses and its residents, I believe some of the bodies were never recovered. You can google it, I'm too tired right now to go diving for sad stories about La Conchita.
That said, here's a picture of the same spot on this freeway closure, from the Sheriff's department's twitter feed, a little earlier in the day when it was closed entirely. This is only a few feet of mud, not enough to bury a house, but enough to shut down a freeway.
<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C46DoKYVYAAhxQx.jpg" />
I used to have to interact with CalTrans officials in an old job I had long ago. I always liked it, because at the bottom of things they were very creative and interesting problem solvers and genuinely cared about their work. I think underneath the whining Californians get that CalTrans is very good at what it does.
They're also very good at getting money to pave everything.
That much plain water is enough, let alone mud. Nasty. I'll have to look that up later.
The site once got in a war with Conservapedia. Yes, the same Conservapedia that rewrote the Bible to get rid of the "liberal passages" lmao
OMG, that's hilarious. Gawd, when will these ridiculous "conservatives" shut the fuck up.
There's a used bookstore in a neighboring town, it's a sad little place in between thrift stores and an auto supply, and the owner is deeply religious, he put a poster in his window that is a long screed warning customers that his store is a "political correctness-free zone." it's all very sad and stupid and maddening. Fortunately I only have to pass it when I go to the fabric store.
Ugh. Two large branches fell off my dead maple tree sometime today. I wasn't home, I have a feeling it was more due to wind than rain. I"m hoping more falls off, as that will mean less tree to pay to have cut down.
My trees have been stressed from the drought. I lost two locust trees last year, and my blue spruce is dying now. The sycamores are doing surprisingly well, thankfully. This rain and snow has been welcome and long overdue, but the aquifer is still in bad shape. Can't win, might as well whine.
Argh, I would give a kidney to have a blue spruce, they won't grow here, obvs.
Yes, it was heartbreaking to realize my maple was dying. My sycamore in the backyard is doing fine, though, and I have a big live oak in the front yard, two, actually, that are thriving, but then, they're built for this climate, so they would.
I also have a plum tree that oddly, just flourishes. It hasn't borne fruit, though, for two years. But I would have thought by now it would have given up the ghost, but no.
I have a rose bush that I think is not going to make it, but it's bounced back before, so maybe it will this time. But I think it might be done for.
I have two apple trees, one of which is capable of producing the most wonderful fruit, the other one hasn't done so well since I've been here. The previous owners said it never produced for them. I have a very young plum that is just coming of age, hope it works out. My spruce was planted as a live xmas tree about 20 years ago. They don't belong here either, but the climate and elevation is similar to their home turf.
ETA: I take it back, it is not a normally dry creek bed, it is the Santa Clara river. That said, the Santa Clara river is usually not much more than an almost dry, very wide river bed.
The people who live on the other side of this river actually have one of those rope (cable) suspension bridges over this river, so that they can get in and out when it rains. They only "need" to use the suspension bridge every few years, but this vid shows why.
Oh great. I've been looking at the Ventura County emergency services tweets so much that I didn't even notice that the burn area for the Sherpa fire in Santa Barbara County from last year now has an evacuation order: https://twitter.com/countyofsb/status/83263026307…
Glad you're home safe. I was going to go to Ventura to meet my friends for pizza and a movie. They called to tell me don't come because the freeway is closed, as I hadn't bothered to check before I was about to leave.
They called from the pizza place and also said that the movie was canceled anyway, because the entire block where the movie theater is had lost power. They said there was a sign in the window of the movie theater saying it doesn't expect to get power back until Sunday.
Back when I was a San Fran native, it felt like the whole winter was one long rain storm. And then there would be fights with SoCal about water rights, even then (we're talking roughly 40 years ago–how did I get to be so old? Crikey!). Anyhoo, I'm sure things have only gotten worse.
The NorCal/SoCal rivalry runs deep. Different cultures, climate, goals, etc. From Sportsball to Snail Darters. I left SF in 67, and it was quite a shock ending up in LA a year later. I never adapted, and plotted my escape from that day on.
Video of the Los Angeles River today. Normally a cement flood control channel with a trickle of water, if any, and lots of grocery carts and litter. https://www.facebook.com/bill.turner2/videos/1020…
All you folks in other parts of the country who mock Californians for freaking out over the slightest rainstorm, kindly note the following:
a) Suck it, jealous losers.
b) The picture above is of the main (only) north-south coastal freeway along the entire state; hundreds of thousands, if not millions of cars, travel some part of it daily, and the only alternative is about two hundred miles inland. Please notice that, erm, it is down to one crawling northbound lane and very limited southbound traffic. To the right of the picture, beyond the freeway, that is the ocean – right there.
c) This is just one example. Multiply this by lots and lots of incidents. This is why Californians freak out over the slightest rain. Plus it messes up our hair.
This comment calls for the Uncyclopedia take
If the boundaries of the break-away Californias could be drawn along one of the state's notorious No-Fault Lines, such as the San Andreas Vollenweider Rift, then the next of the state's famous mudslides could deposit one of the new states neatly into the Pacific Ocean without requiring reapportionment.
On one of the rare occasions when it rains in California, the astonishing result, despite decades of "environmental protection," none of it involving the planting of trees that might be non-indigenous and would have to be removed at the owner's expense, is that the land turns to Silly Putty and entire subdivisions undergo Urban Relocation, as Mother Nature in her striped suit throws the yellow flag and backs everything up fifteen yards for encroachment. Expressways likewise experience a spontaneous lane shift without benefit of construction cones.
When a mudslide occurs, those living where the mud was telephone their first responders, who send camera crews to document the panic and horror of backyard sundials and nude statues being buried under cubic feet of cubist mud. The footage may lead on the Six-O'Clock News, especially if children burst into tears. On the larger mudslides, a general alarm may bring larger crews up from Hollywood to start work on a feature film. In the modern era, residents may be too busy filming the cataclysm to put on their social web page so that additional people will like them, to turn their phones around and call for help.
Ha ha, excellent.
Although, I probably shouldn't mock, since the spot on the 101 where this story is talking about, La Conchita, experienced a horrific mudslide ten years ago that literally in seconds, in the middle of the night buried several houses and its residents, I believe some of the bodies were never recovered. You can google it, I'm too tired right now to go diving for sad stories about La Conchita.
That said, here's a picture of the same spot on this freeway closure, from the Sheriff's department's twitter feed, a little earlier in the day when it was closed entirely. This is only a few feet of mud, not enough to bury a house, but enough to shut down a freeway.
<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C46DoKYVYAAhxQx.jpg" />
Over half my working life was spent with CalTrans. Everyone hated us until shit like this happened.
I used to have to interact with CalTrans officials in an old job I had long ago. I always liked it, because at the bottom of things they were very creative and interesting problem solvers and genuinely cared about their work. I think underneath the whining Californians get that CalTrans is very good at what it does.
They're also very good at getting money to pave everything.
That much plain water is enough, let alone mud. Nasty. I'll have to look that up later.
The site once got in a war with Conservapedia. Yes, the same Conservapedia that rewrote the Bible to get rid of the "liberal passages" lmao
OMG, that's hilarious. Gawd, when will these ridiculous "conservatives" shut the fuck up.
There's a used bookstore in a neighboring town, it's a sad little place in between thrift stores and an auto supply, and the owner is deeply religious, he put a poster in his window that is a long screed warning customers that his store is a "political correctness-free zone." it's all very sad and stupid and maddening. Fortunately I only have to pass it when I go to the fabric store.
Here's a useful [site.]
[Sometimes the wind blows, too.]
[What it be like here.]
Ugh. Two large branches fell off my dead maple tree sometime today. I wasn't home, I have a feeling it was more due to wind than rain. I"m hoping more falls off, as that will mean less tree to pay to have cut down.
My trees have been stressed from the drought. I lost two locust trees last year, and my blue spruce is dying now. The sycamores are doing surprisingly well, thankfully. This rain and snow has been welcome and long overdue, but the aquifer is still in bad shape. Can't win, might as well whine.
Argh, I would give a kidney to have a blue spruce, they won't grow here, obvs.
Yes, it was heartbreaking to realize my maple was dying. My sycamore in the backyard is doing fine, though, and I have a big live oak in the front yard, two, actually, that are thriving, but then, they're built for this climate, so they would.
I also have a plum tree that oddly, just flourishes. It hasn't borne fruit, though, for two years. But I would have thought by now it would have given up the ghost, but no.
I have a rose bush that I think is not going to make it, but it's bounced back before, so maybe it will this time. But I think it might be done for.
I have two apple trees, one of which is capable of producing the most wonderful fruit, the other one hasn't done so well since I've been here. The previous owners said it never produced for them. I have a very young plum that is just coming of age, hope it works out. My spruce was planted as a live xmas tree about 20 years ago. They don't belong here either, but the climate and elevation is similar to their home turf.
Here's a normally dry creek bed in Fillmore: https://twitter.com/VCFD/status/83271806203384217…
ETA: I take it back, it is not a normally dry creek bed, it is the Santa Clara river. That said, the Santa Clara river is usually not much more than an almost dry, very wide river bed.
The image I'd thought I was posting was this, which is a normally dry creek bed. https://twitter.com/VCFD_PIO/status/8327325577078…
Both of these are in a fairly rural area, otherwise I think they would have been much more cemented in and flood-controlled.
Are you in Ventura County? I haven't been there in a very long time.
Here's another one I find a bit chilling: https://twitter.com/VCFD/status/83271990665939353…
The people who live on the other side of this river actually have one of those rope (cable) suspension bridges over this river, so that they can get in and out when it rains. They only "need" to use the suspension bridge every few years, but this vid shows why.
Here's one car that got caught up in a flood I worked in Death Valley:
<img src="http://exophrenic.com/vr/deathvalley/assets/Bronco5393.jpg"</img>
[Video.]
Whoa.
Puzzling evidence indeed. Was it….aliens?
Always assume aliens.
Wow, now NWS is saying that some areas will see ten inches of rain. Ten!?!? https://twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles/status/83165160…
That's deep. I've seen the Santa Clara River over the bridge before, must've been in 68 or 69? That took a lot of rain, too.
Oh great. I've been looking at the Ventura County emergency services tweets so much that I didn't even notice that the burn area for the Sherpa fire in Santa Barbara County from last year now has an evacuation order: https://twitter.com/countyofsb/status/83263026307…
Had the joy of driving on the freeway earlier today. Still thanking God I made it home safe and sound FFS.
Glad you're home safe. I was going to go to Ventura to meet my friends for pizza and a movie. They called to tell me don't come because the freeway is closed, as I hadn't bothered to check before I was about to leave.
They called from the pizza place and also said that the movie was canceled anyway, because the entire block where the movie theater is had lost power. They said there was a sign in the window of the movie theater saying it doesn't expect to get power back until Sunday.
And Santa Barbara's reservoir, Lake Cachuma, is filling up rapidly: https://twitter.com/countyofsb/status/83272629190…
Mudslide in Santa Barbara: https://twitter.com/countyofsb/status/83267763612…
You bet!
Got some decent rain up here SF way today, but nothing of epic proportions. still, the rainiest season in several years. Good luck, So Ca?
Back when I was a San Fran native, it felt like the whole winter was one long rain storm. And then there would be fights with SoCal about water rights, even then (we're talking roughly 40 years ago–how did I get to be so old? Crikey!). Anyhoo, I'm sure things have only gotten worse.
The NorCal/SoCal rivalry runs deep. Different cultures, climate, goals, etc. From Sportsball to Snail Darters. I left SF in 67, and it was quite a shock ending up in LA a year later. I never adapted, and plotted my escape from that day on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BG-KFQ0WkY
WHOA.
|Gettin all wet|
This rain ain't healthy : I've been told
Hear me cough : catching cold
Ain't no telling : what I'll get
Dang!
Video of the Los Angeles River today. Normally a cement flood control channel with a trickle of water, if any, and lots of grocery carts and litter.
https://www.facebook.com/bill.turner2/videos/1020…
[LA River in normal times.]