brighamr
Member
I'm telling this story specifically to give an example of how S can HTF, and how I reacted to the situation.
Preface: I am renting this home, and when I build my own (which is currently being planned) I wont build it at the mouth of two canyons!!!
Yesterday, while idly watching TV; I noticed some somber clouds in the distance moving rapidly toward our house. The news forecast had said we may receive up to 1/10th of an inch of rain. Shortly thereafter, the clouds descended upon us; and the hail started. Within 20 minutes, we had golf ball sized hail falling from the sky. We could not see the railing on our front porch due to the tremendous amount of rain/hail, in combination with 70mph gusts of wind. I took the camera out and got some pictures. Midway through my picture taking, the north canyon became a flash flood (15 feet wide and about 4 feet deep). This is normally a completely dry canyon, even during spring run off.
I ran down to the basement, and the second I opened the door both daylight basement windows broke, sending hundreds of gallons of water into the basement bedroom and bathroom. Another 15 minutes and our entire bottom story of the house had approximately 1 foot of water, with more coming in by the second. This is unfortunately where all of my reloading equipment is stored...I had already thrown all the breakers and turned off the propane as a precaution, but little did I know what was waiting for us. I opened the garage to release water, then ran up stairs to view the surroundings. The canyon river had completely demolished our 1/4 mile driveway, leaving us no way out.
I instructed my wife to pack some belongings while I hauled them to the truck. I grabbed all of my guns and some ammo, because honestly it felt like the whole place may have come down. We got the dogs in, and sent our horses and goats to higher ground. After we got loaded up, we proceeded to drive through our fences in an effort to get out of the rising water. Eventually we did make it out of the yard and onto the road. 5 neighboring horses had jumped fences to evade mudslides, and they were in the middle of the highway. Cars were wrecked on both sides from sliding off the road during the white out. By this time the storm had passed, but considering we had no power, phone, or food we helped herd the horses back to their homes and headed to a friends house up the road. Luckily he did have a working phone line. We called around a few places (letting the landlord know and such), it turns out the entire southwest of the state got hit hard.
It turns out we were pretty lucky. Most of our expensive/sentimental items and all of my guns were on the third story. However, all of my wife's business equipment and all of my reloading equipment was covered in mud/bugs/and water. We came home today (the day after) and have spent about 14 hours cleaning up. I have a long bed ford, and an entire bed full of trashed items was taken to the dump today. The homeowners were here with some "workers", it's estimated to be about a month before everything is fixed/replaced.
Here's what I have learned:
*Having a "bug out bag" is essential in this type of situation.
*No matter where you live, store everything of value high above the ground.
*The "super human strength" you hear about is real. Looking at the fence post I tore from the ground with my bare hands yesterday made me realize this (I am not a physically strong man).
I'm sure I learned a lot more, but I'm almost asleep just typing this. I'll check back here soon and give another update.
Unfortunately when the storm was at it's peak, I was running through the house rather than taking pics. I did get a couple though.
My front yard:
My driveway (aftermath)
Part of the hill that slid out
Preface: I am renting this home, and when I build my own (which is currently being planned) I wont build it at the mouth of two canyons!!!
Yesterday, while idly watching TV; I noticed some somber clouds in the distance moving rapidly toward our house. The news forecast had said we may receive up to 1/10th of an inch of rain. Shortly thereafter, the clouds descended upon us; and the hail started. Within 20 minutes, we had golf ball sized hail falling from the sky. We could not see the railing on our front porch due to the tremendous amount of rain/hail, in combination with 70mph gusts of wind. I took the camera out and got some pictures. Midway through my picture taking, the north canyon became a flash flood (15 feet wide and about 4 feet deep). This is normally a completely dry canyon, even during spring run off.
I ran down to the basement, and the second I opened the door both daylight basement windows broke, sending hundreds of gallons of water into the basement bedroom and bathroom. Another 15 minutes and our entire bottom story of the house had approximately 1 foot of water, with more coming in by the second. This is unfortunately where all of my reloading equipment is stored...I had already thrown all the breakers and turned off the propane as a precaution, but little did I know what was waiting for us. I opened the garage to release water, then ran up stairs to view the surroundings. The canyon river had completely demolished our 1/4 mile driveway, leaving us no way out.
I instructed my wife to pack some belongings while I hauled them to the truck. I grabbed all of my guns and some ammo, because honestly it felt like the whole place may have come down. We got the dogs in, and sent our horses and goats to higher ground. After we got loaded up, we proceeded to drive through our fences in an effort to get out of the rising water. Eventually we did make it out of the yard and onto the road. 5 neighboring horses had jumped fences to evade mudslides, and they were in the middle of the highway. Cars were wrecked on both sides from sliding off the road during the white out. By this time the storm had passed, but considering we had no power, phone, or food we helped herd the horses back to their homes and headed to a friends house up the road. Luckily he did have a working phone line. We called around a few places (letting the landlord know and such), it turns out the entire southwest of the state got hit hard.
It turns out we were pretty lucky. Most of our expensive/sentimental items and all of my guns were on the third story. However, all of my wife's business equipment and all of my reloading equipment was covered in mud/bugs/and water. We came home today (the day after) and have spent about 14 hours cleaning up. I have a long bed ford, and an entire bed full of trashed items was taken to the dump today. The homeowners were here with some "workers", it's estimated to be about a month before everything is fixed/replaced.
Here's what I have learned:
*Having a "bug out bag" is essential in this type of situation.
*No matter where you live, store everything of value high above the ground.
*The "super human strength" you hear about is real. Looking at the fence post I tore from the ground with my bare hands yesterday made me realize this (I am not a physically strong man).
I'm sure I learned a lot more, but I'm almost asleep just typing this. I'll check back here soon and give another update.
Unfortunately when the storm was at it's peak, I was running through the house rather than taking pics. I did get a couple though.
My front yard:
My driveway (aftermath)
Part of the hill that slid out
