Whenever flash flood warnings come on the t.v. and interrupt programming I get mad as h-e-double hockey sticks, because it is hardly ever raining out there. They make the biggest deal out of a little rain out here. Honestly. It's ridiculous. It goes like this every time it rains. 1) Rain is detected somewhere in the state. 2) Someone pulls the alarm on flash floods releasing the Kraken of obnoxious attention-getting noise accompanying a warming that does not affect you but forces you to shut off the warning and disregard the message and the programing.
And then I realized those flash floods really are dangerous and really do catch people off guard, for the same reason I always wanted to be the special person under a virga being rained on singularly when it is not raining all around. The streaks hanging down. If they actually do touch, and the cloud dump it entire contents at once in one spot like that then the sudden pool of water spreads out.
In the spirit of reformed attitude I offer this public service information anim about why flash floods are dangerous.
21 comments:
I've always loved flash floods. When I was a kid we lived in one of the low spots in town. With a good downpour, the streets would fill about 2 feet deep with water, and all the kids in the neighborhood would come out on our bicycles and tear it up.
I would always go to the nearby creek to see the fury of the high water completely wipe out our favorite hang out spots, washing away all our collected artifacts of adventure and Lord of the Flies tribal civilization which thrived, was destroyed, and rose again over and over beyond the sight of the adults who lived in an alternate universe nearby.
I still often drive and then hike up into mountains above the city of Los Angeles to catch the electricity of a raging swollen python of water winding its way through gorges and wiping clean the paths that were so perfectly positioned along a gently bubbling stream in summer months. Then in winter they seem like they were blazed in a time long before anybody knew that the yards deep of mountain snow tends to melt in the spring and flow downhill.
Here's some photos and a close up video from one such excursion a few years ago.
San Gabriel River
San Diego *County* gets a significant amount of rain and snow. Its just that it pretty much all happens in the mountains, well to the east of the coastal and near-coastal areas most of the people live in.
Because of this, I used to get flash flood alerts to my cellular phone all the time, until I figured out how to turn them off. It was sort of surreal to receive an EMERGENCY WARNING of FLASH FLOODS with nothing but a couple of tiny little white fluffy clouds in sight.
It's not always so easy getting a good shot especially when the dog is always moving or intensely interested in what you are doing, when they are black and youxxxx I mean I am not such a good photographer and my camera is crap. But I'm getting better at that, but alas, now that I'm getting it together, no dog around anymore and I'm not sure I'm willing to deal with the hair and the care and the constant need for attention. But I sure do love the way they look.
This is a character flaw I have, I do not want an ugly dog. I figure I'm going to be looking at them a lot and for a long time so they must be beautiful to behold. It's a thing. And they are beautiful, and that does captivate me, and if not for that then I'd wouldn't bother grooming them.
Your dog reminds me a little of mine, the German part bears on the Belgian part, erect ears, square, sloping tail, long snout, the photo of your black dog looking at the river is similar to the Belgians, this one was the most dainty Red Rocks, she was not a good rock climber not at all adventurous, not at nearly like the shepherd, much more sensible. She was not having it at Red Rocks. She looks triumphant but she was all, let's get off these rocks right now, bark bark bark, it's illegal
on terrace of somebody's apartment
behind my parent's house
I like that second photo, Chip. Nice contrasts between dog, snow and mountains.
They're called flash floods because they're sudden and cataclysmic in their impact.
Even as a little kid (in the heyday of Westerns), I remember reading how you can't swim in a flash flood. Your only hope is climbing to higher ground.
In 1977 we were living in KC and got trapped in a flash flood that killed 25 people and wiped out the toney Country Club Plaza. We had about 10 inches of rain, but the next day it was sunny and very warm. There were flash flood warnings but we and two other couples were young and indestructible. We went to the Royals game. In the fourth inning the rains came. It looked like snow it was so heavy. The game was cancelled immediately and fans were told to stay if they wanted as the stadium was in a safe area. We said, "Fuck that" we're going home.
The route home was through the 'hood. We got about 5 miles from our home when the waters started rising before our eyes in the road. We got out of the car, in the middle of the road, and saw it float away a minute later. We ran to a bar and were greeted by some friendly black folk. We were safe but one of the women had her purse stolen. C'est la vie. About a couple hours later the KC Police came around and picked up folks in a boat, taking us to a nearby precinct building. That's where we slept on the floor. The next morning the cops gave us a ride home through the Country Club Plaza. It was shocking.
I grew up near the Atlantic so I always had a healthy respect for hurricanes. When I moved to KC I quickly came to respect tornadoes. I learned to respect flash floods in 1977. We spend winters in San Diego. Only experienced a few small earthquakes so far. However, I respect them as well as tsunami's.
Black dogs need +0.7ev exposure, +1.7ev on a snow background.
A dog often photographed will develop picture-defeating skills.
No useful body langauge from me, is their policy, when the camera points at them.
I have no respect for any of nature's events.
Salt packet for sale in Britain
"This salt is over 200 million years old, extracted from the mountains of Germany. Best before April 3, 2003"
from Wikipedia:
On July 31, 1976, during the celebration of Colorado's centennial, the Big Thompson Canyon was the site of a devastating flash flood that swept down the steep and narrow canyon, claiming the lives of 143 people, 5 of whom were never found. This flood was triggered by a nearly stationary thunderstorm near the upper section of the canyon that dumped 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain in less than 4 hours (more than 3/4 of the average annual rainfall for the area). Little rain fell over the lower section of the canyon, where many of the victims were.
Around 9 p.m., a wall of water more than 6 meters (20 ft) high raced down the canyon at about 6 m/s (14 mph), destroying 400 cars, 418 houses and 52 businesses and washing out most of U.S. Route 34. [5] This flood was more than 4 times as strong as any in the 112-year record available in 1976, with a discharge of 1,000 cubic meters per second (35,000 ft³/s).
What a mess. That burn area has been pounded by rain over and over this season. And we're in a bit of a drought.
I never took seriously the warning to not drive through flooded sections of road, till I saw somewhere that the danger isn't the brakes getting wet, but the buoyancy of the tires causing a car to float away. It was an ah-ha moment.
She's a sweetie, Chip. If I lived in an apartment, the most daunting thing to me would be having to walk it all the time. Shelties are beautiful and in need of grooming. Not clear on their temperament or energy needs.
Once I had a dog (one of my very favorites) and when I went horseback riding (very badly) she yip-barked along side me and the horse the WHOLE time. That was illegal, too.
Here's one a few days ago in Page, AZ. The interesting thing about it is that the water is up to surface level - there is a 40-foot-deep slot canyon under there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VD5GxluHN8
Antelope Canyon is the place where a hiking party was wiped out by a flood in the late 90s, orphaning a couple of little French kids.
This one shows that grinding mass of wood that makes being caught by the beginning of a flash flood inadvisable. See :55 and following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNgpI03nWFM
Wow. Y'all have nice looking black dogs. I like the large pointy ears.
Phil: The Big Thompson flood is still talked about today. It was deadly because the wall of water caught so many by surprise at night. They had no where to go. A terrifying prospect.
(gah)
I was going to mention the Thompson Canyon flood and then I see Phil did ...
We drove through Thompson Canyon several years before the terrible flood. It was beautiful, the river was way below the road, and it was very narrow and steep terrain.
We camped above it (someplace, I don't remember now) but not in the places that were later destroyed.
It does give one pause when you have been where those people were and been laughing and oohing and aaahing at how beautiful it is -- to find out how quickly and violently it can change.
I saw some video about the CO flood and holy cow -- brief and no one killed but stunning in how fast it happens.
This looks terrifying.
(annoying ad at the front end)
When I was a teen in Pittsburgh, my church youth group got sent out to clean up from a flash flood event that killed seven along a canyon through Hampton and Shaler Townships & the borough of Etna. I remember hearing that at least one of the dead had been seen trying to drive her car through the flood, although the linked article doesn't mention it. It had been particularly bad because a used-car lot had been swept away and collected as a temporary dam along a small bridge, until the bridge gave way.
The foot or more of mud that had been left behind in the basements we mucked out has always left me with a mild awe of the power of swift water.
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