And I Wish I Had Remembered the Camera

Two (or so) weeks ago we had big rain storms come through. Extensive flooding around us, trees down, etc. This was when our ceiling was leaking (if you're a regular reader you will remember that of course). One evening during the downpours we noticed a sudden stream of cars pass the house leaving from the beach area down the hill and another stream of dump trucks and a bulldozer go down the hill toward the beach. Well what we found out the next day was the road around by the water (our favorite place to see Old Man Rainier) was closed due to a mudslide. We had kind of expected that it would be reopened by now since it is a school bus route. It's not. Saturday the weather was nice enough for a walk and curiousity got the best of me. I had to go see what in the world has kept the road closed this long. Mudslide.... pile of mud in the road right. At the bottom of the hill (3/4 mile in) I realized I forgot the camera: I will take it the next time I go. There were a total of 5 mudslides along the section of road. first one was small and is already cleaned up but you can see the gash in the hillside where it came from. Second one was tiny onto someone's driveway. The third one was amazing; not a pile of mud in the road. As you walk this road there is a steel guard rail against a sea wall on the water side and the other side is a cliff area. As I approached I could see the guard rail was bent over the edge into the water with all the wooden posts holding it broken off for about a 40 yard section. The steel is bent all the way over the edge of the sea wall and down the 6-7 foot drop into the water. There are a few stumps of trees just sitting in the road... roots and all.... they are taller than me. The fourth slide area covered the road but did not reach the water and the fifth was a small one that has already been cleared and haystacked. It was really powerful to see what water and mud can do as a destructive force. I can also now fully understand why a caravan of cars left the area that night: there had to be a horrible rumble as all that fell away and it was still raining so hard I bet they wondered what else would come down during the night.
Next time I walk I promise to take the camera for pics (maybe even video)
love and hugs,
B
PS I know you have endured several posts without pics of kids--- I will try harder to get some pics of them.