Three days ago I posted about our severe weather and its aftermath, but the following day it got worse.
A severe hailstorm and another torrential downpour with high winds brought down a large tree. It fell across the road, blocked the road, destroyed our beautiful Japanese maple, and knocked down our fence.
Coincidentally, our tree man was already on his way to cut down several small trees that had fallen over the driveway after the earlier rains. (It wasn’t even raining when he headed for our house.) He and his helper had to work in continuing thunderstorms and often knee-deep water to get the mess cleaned up. Eventually the storms became so bad that they had to quit and come back the following day to finish up.
Continuing downpours during the night caused flash floods that redirected the course of the newly-formed creek, and we awoke to find it running down the middle of the road.
As of yesterday, the entire length of the road was a huge mess. Water erosion caused a 12-inch dropoff at the end of our driveway.
Because I am afraid of either getting stuck or damaging my car or both, we aren’t going anywhere until the road is repaired, graded, gravelled, whatever has to be done. Someone is coming to look at it tomorrow.
This morning, with no rain in the forecast for today, I walked down to look at the new creek coming out of the woods. It was still flowing, but amazingly I could see it disappear back underground. It no longer was flowing out onto the road.
Late this afternoon, I checked again, and there is no trace of the creek that caused so much damage. We all hope it doesn’t reappear in the storms that are forecast for tomorrow.
Oh my goodness, hang tight! We have some of those kinds of issues with heavy rain, with our sandy soil suddenly sinking down, and new fresh soil appearing where the creek washes into the pond, but nothing so extreme! I hope you can get some sleep tonight and some help tomorrow!
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Thank you! We are fine. Our neighbor can still get out. The road isn’t so bad at their end, and they said they will go to the store for us if we need anything. I just hope we don’t have to wait several days to get the work done.
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So sorry to read about the devastation visited on you, Deb, and holding thumbs that you’ll be helped soon enough!
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A kind neighbor worked on the road in the hot sun this afternoon with a shovel and wheelbarrow, and we think we can at least get out in the morning. Major repairs will come soon, we hope. Thank you!
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Glad to hear that at least you are no longer marooned!
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Oh my, that’s certainly a bother. Hope the rains won’t cause further damage.
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No rain today and none in the forecast for the next week. Yay! Maybe we can get the road repaired.
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Wow. Hope things improve soon.
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Thank you. Our neighbor did some work on the road so that we can get out now. Major repair work begins tomorrow.
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I remember reading the first post, Debra… but missed how it hadn’t got worse. i’m glad you were able to have a more serene walk on your driveway today Debra. Ah…. the trials of life. Thank god there was no injury involved – though I really get from Fran and my own experience, that such weather events are burdensome. May you enjoy the simple pleasures. Peace…. Bruce
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Thank you, Bruce. We have had so much rain in the past 12 months. The ground is saturated. There have been additional flash floods and trees down since I wrote those posts, although not on our property. Rainfall here in 2018 was the highest on record. And people say there’s no climate change!
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