And the creek did rise

Friends on facebook know about our little adventure earlier this week. We had to go out to Sta. Rosa to take care of some business and while we were there the heavy rains caused the normally dry creek bed behind the house to become a raging river for the space of a couple hours. Thankfully we had our camera with us so we documented it -- in excruciating detail, but we're only sharing a few photos and one video here today :)

Many years ago when Arroyo El Portezuelo overflowed its banks after a similar heavy rainfall, my in-laws built a short wall along the back to keep the waters at bay. We were rather nervous on Tuesday, wondering whether the wall would be sufficient!

As you can see, the water came almost to the top of the wall. Much higher and it would have breached the wall and poured into the yard. Since the garage sits about a meter from that wall (and the house just a couple meters more), we'd have had serious flooding issues.

Here's a short video we shot:


To give you some perspective, I'm including three photos of the same place (our neighbor's clothes line), taken during the height of the creek flow, about an hour later and then the next morning.

the creek at its highest on Tuesday

 about an hour later, it's already receding

 Wednesday morning, flattened brush and grass the only evidence of the rushing water from Tuesday

Arroyo El Portezuelo lies dormant 99% of the year. Our neighbor's horses wander and munch on whatever they want back there, and there's always plenty with the grass and weeds growing several feet high. But every once in a blue moon, heavy rains in the low sierras just a few miles away are channeled through the creek and into the Santa Rosa River about a block away. Normally it doesn't rise this high, and we're just very thankful the wall was sufficient.

But as we contemplate putting up a new fence along the back, you can bet we're thinking about building that wall a little higher!