Hail, Torrential Rains, and Mudslides

I live in a desert but I have had to remind myself of that several times this year. Although the daily rainfall through the month of July and into August is a boon to our water supply, it is not normal.

Especially when the heavens open up and dump six inches of hail followed by four inches of rain in less than an hour on our heads.  That one storm brought with it a mud slide from the mountains at the rear of our property. It came down the clear path of our access road (shown here) into the hills behind us and dumped at least three feet of mud (mostly sand), in our side yard.

The water, eager to make its way to the river below us, carved paths into the hillside, washed the gravel from our driveway, and lifted and moved our propane tank off its foundation (shown here).  As you can see the tank is about one-third buried, plus as we found out later, it had been lifted approximately ten inches off the cement pad. We had to dig down about eighteen inches just so I could open my garden shed.

The hail wiped out many plants in my garden and my neighbor's garden. It shredded the leaves on my Iris plants and toppled the Monarda plants (shown here).   Even our road was flooded in several locations, leaving mounds of dirt and debris closing off the primary access to our home.

They call it the “Hundred Year Rain Storm”.  I hope they are right!

But thankfully God was watching over us. Even with the additional dirt in our yard, the missing gravel in our driveway, and the general cleanup we need to do—nothing was harmed. It could have been a lot worse.