Floods follow fires around San Francisco
Peaks
07/28/10
Editor’s note: Charline Plett
writes from Flagstaff where she and her family were impacted by
the Schultz Fire and just recently, the flooding that occured
as a result of the lack of vegetation to hold recent rains
back.
By Charline Plett
My husband, Reg, and I just got
back from our tour of the damaged areas. It is
devastating! But watching the people gather together,
helping to sandbag all the areas, is refreshing.
We saw some places where sand had
been brought in, and the cars, trucks and trailers were lining
Highway 89 as people were filling sandbags and making waddles
(tubes of straw), loading them onto trucks and hauling them to
all the neighborhoods that have already washed away. They
were preparing for the next downpour.
It was very dark with clouds as we
left the areas and lightening was creating a beauty of its own
against the darkened skies. In the midst of the
devastation, we had a remarkable uplifting of spirits as a
double rainbow appeared, forcing everyone to look to the sky as
its majestic array of colors and size filled the heavens above
the ashen mud, ruts and pools of black water. Moments
before, all the attention had been on the devastation, the
depressing surroundings. What a contrast of “Beauty
and the Beast.”
We saw two men in a field of mud,
trying to determine where to put the wall of sandbags to
protect their homes before the next rain. There were
wonderful volunteers, loading up sand and making waddles.
There was a huge ditch where the
water had flowed so swiftly, it washed an electric transformer
out of the ground. The neighborhoods that were hit were
also without power for several hours.
It’s sprinkling now and the
lights blinked on and off, so we may lose power before the
night is through.
Our neighborhood got flooded just
now too. It’s nothing in comparison to the
Hutchison Acres, Timberline, Fernwood area.
I can’t even walk out to my mailbox
for the time being until the waters quit rushing down my
driveway. With it being so dry for so long--it is going
into the ground pretty fast. My trees and garden are
rejoicing for the rain!!!
And one thing more - we need to
recognize all the volunteers who got the sandbags, who worked
tirelessly filling them and distributing them. There were
so many of them and they deserve our thanks for their fine
efforts.