More Flood '98 Scenes Around La Honda and San Gregorio, CA

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http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/7956/flood1.html

Updated March 1, 1998
Lots of graphics following - be patient if you are on a simple modem!

In many places on our beautiful coastside, it is scene after scene of destruction. Everywhere I look, I see broken bits and pieces of people's lives strewn all along the creeks and in the trees. Several of my friends, and whole families, are homeless. I am sort of lucky in this regard. My place seems OK, it was just difficult to reach in February (1.5 mile hike in, through woods, mud and water with no way to get a vehicle in). There is some slight hill movement downhill of my house. My landlady, unfortunately, has no clue about what we've been through out here, and is completely unsympathetic.

For many in the area, this weather has been a real dent on the commuting schedule. Since I used to work "over the hill" in Silicon Valley, I can understand these frustrations.

Click on any of the images below to see a double-sized version.

Feb. 20. This looks like it was an absolutely beautiful place to live. A private cottage near a nice little creek 50 feet behind me. That nice creek flooded out so hard, it came right through this place, where it blew interior and exterior walls out, and left behind several feet of mud.

The muddy waterline inside reaches to, oh, about 8 inches below the ceiling. That puts it over the windows on the first floor.

Feb. 20. Same place, opposite side. The water flow direction was toward the camera in this view.

Like I said, this was once a gem of a place to live. Someday it will again be a nice little cottage (on stilts, I bet!), but probably not in time for me to find adequate housing.

Feb. 20. This is how it looks along the creeks: shreds of humanity everywhere. Lots of crumpled sheet aluminum, from trailers people were living in, to the remains of sheds that once housed tools, paints, chemicals, etc. The human artifacts are mixed with millions of bits of water-worn wood, lumber, timber, and stuff that looks like nicely cut and split firewood.

I think I located a leaking propane tank, judging by the smell, but I cannot actually see it. Some of the junk is buried, and some is partially sticking out of the mud. Some is tangled up in the trees. I mean UP in the trees. I've seen crushed refrigerators and hot water tanks, propane tanks (all sizes), building materials, car and truck rims. Some rims still have tires with decent tread, but are deflated because of rips. The list goes on and on and on...

Feb. 21. I see a story in every little piece of washed-away humanity all around me.

This is some of the bruised and mud-caked stuff I found in one small area near a bend in the creek. A Frisbee. Bottle of Bausch & Lomb Sensitive Eyes saline solution. Child's ball. A Coleman camp stove propane bottle. Sealed bottle of cleanser, almost full. Weird old booze bottle, filled with mud. Plastic salt shaker. Margarine container with halogen bulbs in it, probably from a glovebox. And yes, that's a sealed beam auto headlamp behind the light bulb. The long item at right is a bone, which I suspect came from a cow.

Feb. 6. San Gregorio beach is covered with driftwood and debris from the many private bridges, cabins and cars that washed away. There are propane tanks, tires, bottles and drums of who knows what. Whole trees of all sizes. Timber. Lumber. Cut firewood. And pumpkins. Thousands of 'em from farmers' fields inland. I also spotted a refrigerator out there -- it's the white object in center background.

Feb. 9. The logjam behind Apple Jack's. The large redwood across the creek fell late last summer. (More easily seen if you click on the image at left for the larger picture). That single tree is now stopping a few tons of smaller trees and other debris. At the height of the storm, water (and whole trees) were going over the large redwood. We watched this spectacle from AJs around midnight. Wild.

The waterfall on the other side of the jam drops about five feet, and although we have had several storms since the big one, the water level is slowly dropping.

Feb. 11. Here, the water has gone down a foot-and-a-half in 48 hours compared to the photo above.

As of Feb. 13th, Hwy. 84 was still closed. Everytime Caltrans took out big truckloads of mud, boulders and trees up the road, a fresh slide would occur. These guys are getting plenty of overtime, I'm sure. The road reopened Feb. 19.

For the first day or two after the storm, La Honda was completely cut off because of road closures.

Feb. 23. Remember that missing bridge of mine? It's the top photo on my first flood page. It's now underwater. Well, they are starting to put it back, and got it this far. It's in the creek, awaiting a crane. I was able to walk over this bridge (carefully, it was at an angle) on Feb. 16 to visit my home and check up on things, like making sure the hillside next to the house isn't doing anything strange. On Feb. 18 we got more rain, and then even more rain, and the bridge was quickly submerged. It also moved downriver a bit. Totally unsafe to foot passage.

The bridge runs from lower left to upper right in the photo, and water is flowing from right to left. The small structure on the opposite bank used to be an aviary. Behind it was a nice vegetable garden.

On Feb. 27 the bridge was put back in place with a big crane. I actually got to help out, as I put my Mechanical Engineering degree to work in the form of plain manual labor, with a shovel...

Related links:

Visible Satellite View of the San Francisco Bay area.

Visible Satellite View of Northern California.

Doppler Radar image of the San Francisco Bay area; shows current precipitation intensities. Interesting to view during a storm (while the power is still on!)

You are mud stomper since Feb. 23, 1998,
when this page was created. Got boots?

Mud-slogging photography by

Bill Underwood

This page was created on 23/FEB/98
Updated 1/MARCH/98

Back to:

Bill's Flood '98 Page

	Feb. 20. This looks like it was an absolutely beautiful place to live. A private cottage near a nice little creek 50 feet behind me. That nice creek flooded out so hard, it came right through this place, where it blew interior and exterior walls out, and left behind several feet of mud. The muddy waterline inside reaches to, oh, about 8 inches below the ceiling. That puts it over the windows on the first floor.
	Feb. 20. Same place, opposite side. The water flow direction was toward the camera in this view. Like I said, this was once a gem of a place to live. Someday it will again be a nice little cottage (on stilts, I bet!), but probably not in time for me to find adequate housing.
	Feb. 20. This is how it looks along the creeks: shreds of humanity everywhere. Lots of crumpled sheet aluminum, from trailers people were living in, to the remains of sheds that once housed tools, paints, chemicals, etc. The human artifacts are mixed with millions of bits of water-worn wood, lumber, timber, and stuff that looks like nicely cut and split firewood. I think I located a leaking propane tank, judging by the smell, but I cannot actually see it. Some of the junk is buried, and some is partially sticking out of the mud. Some is tangled up in the trees. I mean UP in the trees. I've seen crushed refrigerators and hot water tanks, propane tanks (all sizes), building materials, car and truck rims. Some rims still have tires with decent tread, but are deflated because of rips. The list goes on and on and on...
	Feb. 21. I see a story in every little piece of washed-away humanity all around me. This is some of the bruised and mud-caked stuff I found in one small area near a bend in the creek. A Frisbee. Bottle of Bausch & Lomb Sensitive Eyes saline solution. Child's ball. A Coleman camp stove propane bottle. Sealed bottle of cleanser, almost full. Weird old booze bottle, filled with mud. Plastic salt shaker. Margarine container with halogen bulbs in it, probably from a glovebox. And yes, that's a sealed beam auto headlamp behind the light bulb. The long item at right is a bone, which I suspect came from a cow.
	Feb. 6. San Gregorio beach is covered with driftwood and debris from the many private bridges, cabins and cars that washed away. There are propane tanks, tires, bottles and drums of who knows what. Whole trees of all sizes. Timber. Lumber. Cut firewood. And pumpkins. Thousands of 'em from farmers' fields inland. I also spotted a refrigerator out there -- it's the white object in center background.
	Feb. 9. The logjam behind Apple Jack's. The large redwood across the creek fell late last summer. (More easily seen if you click on the image at left for the larger picture). That single tree is now stopping a few tons of smaller trees and other debris. At the height of the storm, water (and whole trees) were going over the large redwood. We watched this spectacle from AJs around midnight. Wild. The waterfall on the other side of the jam drops about five feet, and although we have had several storms since the big one, the water level is slowly dropping.
	Feb. 11. Here, the water has gone down a foot-and-a-half in 48 hours compared to the photo above.
	As of Feb. 13th, Hwy. 84 was still closed. Everytime Caltrans took out big truckloads of mud, boulders and trees up the road, a fresh slide would occur. These guys are getting plenty of overtime, I'm sure. The road reopened Feb. 19. For the first day or two after the storm, La Honda was completely cut off because of road closures.
	Feb. 23. Remember that missing bridge of mine? It's the top photo on my first flood page. It's now underwater. Well, they are starting to put it back, and got it this far. It's in the creek, awaiting a crane. I was able to walk over this bridge (carefully, it was at an angle) on Feb. 16 to visit my home and check up on things, like making sure the hillside next to the house isn't doing anything strange. On Feb. 18 we got more rain, and then even more rain, and the bridge was quickly submerged. It also moved downriver a bit. Totally unsafe to foot passage. The bridge runs from lower left to upper right in the photo, and water is flowing from right to left. The small structure on the opposite bank used to be an aviary. Behind it was a nice vegetable garden. On Feb. 27 the bridge was put back in place with a big crane. I actually got to help out, as I put my Mechanical Engineering degree to work in the form of plain manual labor, with a shovel...