Here in the hollow we’ve received about ten inches of rain in the past week. That is a lot of water. It manifests itself in our normally placid springs roaring with anger and temporary creeks appearing in unexpected places. All of this water heads for Keels Creek and then makes a left-hand turn into the Kings River.
The USGS monitors the Kings River at the Grandview Bridge not too far from here. It’s not unusual for the river to be knee deep at this spot. Three days ago the river crested at 35.47 feet at the Grandview Bridge, the 5th highest depth on record.
We observed the river from the bridge when it was about 27 feet deep and it was a muddy, rolling sight to behold. My understanding is that the bridge went underwater when the river crested and the highway was closed. The slogan used for times like that is “Turn Around – Don’t Drown.”
Growing up in Seattle, we see a lot of rain, so I understand your pain. Living in California now, I miss the rain because it made everything greener and the skies clearer. However, a bridge going underwater should have signs about 20 miles earlier, and one each mile.
We barely get rain in California but when it does rain, we have rivers in the roads. The roads aren’t built for rain so they just flood and cars that are parked on the streets are trapped. I guess we should have these signs all over Southern California!
I can’t handle rain. I can’t drive it in and make my husband drive all the time when it does 🙂 A bridge was 27 feet underwater? Did you take a photo of it?
The bridge wasn’t underwater when we observed it, the river was 27 feet deep.