We are getting NAILED!
Here is our creek on a normal day:
1/4/2008 – 8am:
3″ of rain at our house
1/4/2008 – 12:45pm
about 5 inches of rain at our house
1/4/2008 – 3pm
about 5.5 inches of rain at our house
1/4/2008 – 5:00 pm
6.1 inches of rain at our house
The rain has stopped for the moment and as you can see, the creek has gone down rapidly. Thank goodness. There are nearly a million people without power in the greater Bay Area so we don’t expect our power to be turned on anytime soon. Thank goodness for the generator. Hopefully the high winds have stopped too. Last night, a wind of 90 mph was recorded near here. Yikes! I think we heard that one — Greg and I both woke up with a ferocious wind blowing in the middle of the night.
Our community has been hit hard — lots of trees down, lots of flooding, lots of mudslides. Scary. We are very, very safe in this house — we just have to be prepared to be cut off if a big tree comes down on our road.
From the comments to this post, I see that people are concerned about the creek. Our property is really safe from flooding despite being butt up to a creek. My lot is really level and the creek is WAY below it. My yard ends with a cliff edge down to the creek. The deck in the pictures sits out at the back of my yard — it’s not attached to the house at all. The creek looks like it goes under the deck but it actually curves around some HUGE boulders and goes around it. The deck is built on the hill above those boulders. So, it’s really secure and not subject to undermining from the creek. Across the creek from us, the lot is much lower and if the creek did jump it’s bank, it would go that way and not towards us. So, it’s impressive and we keep an eye on it but the creek is no danger to us. We are way more concerned about high winds and the redwood trees.
Redwoods have a shallow root system and a big wind and wet ground can bring them down. This usually happens on a hillside though and we are not on a hillside so we feel pretty safe. Whew!
The next storm is hopefully not as wet and windy but is expected to be colder. Brrr. I guess it’s due to hit tonight or tomorrow morning. Oh joy!
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 
Y’know, it always looks like the creek runs right under your house! 😛 Or at least too close to your deck for comfort…
Stay dry! We’re getting storms soon as well, but I’m sure nothing this dramatic 😛
Oh, yes. Okay, our house is well back from the creek edge. That is a deck I am standing on. It is high above the creek and sits on a HUGE boulder. The other side of the creek is MUCH lower than our side so any water will go that way, not toward us. Thankfully! It’s impressive though!
Holy hell! Don’t go wading.
Yikes! But kinda exciting.
OMG Liza! That’s scary! Where is the creek in relation to your backyard and all of the work you showed last year that you guys did?
O my goodness! Look at that water! How amazing!
Whew! I was looking at the SC Senile on-line at work and hoping you were just toasty in your home. Thanks for keeping us up to date. Any flooding in Santa Cruz?
The flooding was pretty much under control — my guess is if the heavy, intense rain had lasted another couple of hours things would have been really ugly instead of just mostly ugly. Also, if we’d already had a heavy winter, it would have been worse. We’re feeling lucky!
There were a LOT of trees that came down — the worst of this storm was the wind. Power was out for a TON of people. Ours came back on around 7pm, we think.
We’ll still get more rain but the really intense stuff is the scary stuff. Although the next storm coming in is colder so we’ll likely get ice and crud like that — maybe even some hail. Oh goodie!
I was watching your weather on national news, Liza. I’m glad you have a generator!
Your creek is mesmerizing to me and it’s good to learn it’s not a flood threat. But those trees, My God! I sure hope things settle down over there. Enough is enough!
The weather was not nearly as wild down here in Orange County. We missed the biggest storm. Looks like you had the brunt of it. Quite spectacular photos, but scary too. I hope your power has been restored.
Glad to hear you are all okay. I just saw your photos on Flickr and had to come and see how you fared in the storm. Those were some scary shots you took!
EEK! Those photos are rather scary Liza. Hope things have calmed down and receded by now!
It seems extreme weather this season can keep us all posting with first hand accounts from coast to coast. From the ice belt, hoping for a silent spring.