As I was driving home in the pouring rain this evening I saw the lights of a police vehicle up ahead. It looked like the rig was right in the middle of the road. As I got closer I could see why it was. He was using his vehicle to block the lane from a huge fallen pine tree that had completely covered the county road. I knew my choices were pretty limited as far as getting home soon when he came to fill me in on the situation. He said they were just starting to use a chainsaw to remove the tree. It could be fifteen minutes or up to an hour. He said I could wait or head back to Inchelium and drive around.I was about a mile and a half from home. If I decided to "drive around" that would be fifteen miles back to Inchelium, time to wait for the ferry, a trip across the lake, then a drive all the way up the other side of the lake (thirty miles), then the drive from Singer's Junction to home. I am guessing that drive would have been more than an hour.
As the rain poured down I also figured out I could go up some other back roads and get home, but I decided to wait. I had work I could do in the car. How long could it take to cut up a tree? It was the best decision I made today. I was home within fifteen minutes.
The rain had weakened the hillside and the tree was uprooted causing it to fall down. I don't know all the details, but it appeared that all the cars on both sides of the tree were safe as we drove gingerly over the road covered with branches and pine needles. Through the fog and rain I could see large pieces of the tree trunk along the side of the road.
The rain also created a new mini- lake outside by my classroom door today. It doesn't matter the age of children when it comes to puddles large or small. Many middle school students came in with soaked shoes and pants dripping wet, but all they could talk about was how fun it was to splash and play in the water.
When the rain continued to fall yesterday at home, the icy, frozen ground kept it from seeping into the ground. A new "creek" flowed down our rock path as about two inches of rain accumulated. The "creek" stopped when it flowed under the door and into our sunroom. This was probably not the best way to clean the carpet. JEJ is honing his dam building skills as he figures out another route for the "creek" knowing more rain in coming in the next few days. Last year we had two feet of snow at this same time. I sure hope we don't get two feet of rain!
We encountered a tree fallen like that on our way down from the mountains via Chinook Pass a couple of years ago. traffic piled up on both sides. One driver fortunatley had a chainsaw, as the tree, small in relation to others in the area, was still too heavy to move. Another route was not an option--the other route--Eastside Road to Hwy 12 and White Pass was still washed out and under repair, and Hwy 12 iteself had a couple of 20 minute delays for construction. We would have had to go---somewhere. Clear around Mt. Rainier or else through Seattle to return. I'm glad that guy had a chain saw.
ReplyDeletewell... hey! You could just add "swimming hole" to you living in the best possible place!
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