Comments on: The Great Flood of ’08

By: Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:12:37 +0000

My parents home got burned out, down to the ground – nothing left but a pile of toasted concrete tiles and blocks – in a fire in Northern San Diego County on October, 2003. The things that we regretted most losing were the photographs. Two weeks before the fire, my daughter was heading out to drive to her new posting on the east coast. She looked at the shoe-box of sorted and labeld photos in the guest room, and thought about taking them with her, to continue to work on the album we thought to make of them. She decided not to take them – a decision we have regretted ever since. (link here – http://www.ncobrief.com/index.php/archives/relics/
As a refugee lady of my acquaintance remarked – take your jewelry and your pictures. You can hock the jewelry, and buy everything else – but you can never get back the family photos.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:22:52 +0000

Good photos! There were several people on the drained lake bed with metal detectors today looking for freebies.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:10:17 +0000

This blog post has some good photos (scroll down) showing what happened to the lake.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:01:56 +0000

Good luck with the clean up.

The draining of the lake was caused by someone not paying attention. A channel of saturated soil must have existed between the lake and the river. That soil liquified and the lake water pushed it into the river forming a new channel. The threat of such an event can be predicted by soil analysis and by injecting concrete binding into the soil.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:58:31 +0000

Only the best!

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:40:27 +0000

Tatyana – it was/is a party, let me tell you. By the way, that blog is pretty cool.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:45:47 +0000

Don,
lying on one’s belly cleaning up the pump while the water still pouring in – something I don’t envy. And the clean-up afterwards, too.

For your future weather prognosis I’d advise you to check out A.Sullivan. [as well as in all other categories; but that's off-topic]

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:07:33 +0000

Jimbino – not really my situation. There was literally nothing of value that got tossed.

We are very good at taking things that have any sort of real value to the Salvation Army on a regular basis – when I was growing up I got all of my “new” clothes there and decided that since they helped me when my family was struggling, that I would help them later in life if I could – so I do.

By: jimbino

jimbino — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:03:50 +0000

Good thing you live in a “throwaway” society. There are folks all over the world who would be standing in line to take your furniture home to their shantytown or favela or tent if they got half a chance.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:59:32 +0000

Tx Jonathan. Gotta stay positive. Many people have it much worse than me.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:53:04 +0000

Ouch. I’m glad you’re seeing a bright side to all this. Good luck.