Washed Away

What a weekend! I think we are all still recouping; Moose most of all at our place. I can't imagine what it must be like for the families in the area dealing with major flooding...especially this time of year.

Stories of people canoeing through Snoqualmie, tweets from Wsdot about the Tolt River flowing at 6500 cfs just a few hours after the rain started (flood stage on the Tolt is a mere 2500 cfs., Moose discovering that the info presented to him on the estimated amount of flow in the Green River was way too conservative. Thankfully the Green River Valley and the Howard Hanson dam survived this latest lashing from Mother Nature.

Of course, because our culture is so business-centric, you don't hear many estimates on the number of people who live or work in harm's way in the valley. But you hear numerous times that the nation's second largest industrial area this side of the Mississippi exists just in Kent's portion of the valley. That alone is scary, especially in a recession period. Who insures the businesses that stay in a flood plain? What does that do to the price of goods coming out of this area?

All that seems trivial though, when I see pictures like this from my friend who lives on the Green:

those lite green things at the bottom of the picture? her deck rail. Above that, those black things behind the bushes? Sandbags. Her backyard is actually about 5 to 6 feet lower than the levee that those sandbags sit on. And her house isn't on stilts. Thank goodness her main living area is on the 2nd floor of her home, but truthfully, who is going to stay in their residence when their backyard (and downstairs) could be filled with 5 ft. of water??