Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tuesday's Rain - 3 inches in 2 hours!!!

I tried to put the video here of the rain chaos but the files are too big so I've just done a couple stills. If you look at all the other photos of our hillside it is dry and there is NO RIVER. With this much rain though we had waterfalls and rivers all around us! The thundering sound was just amazing as it came crashing down the hill from Maricao and down our property onto the road below! I'll try to grab some stills of the road from the videos later but for now...
Our cement table is just to the left of this image and you can see the Ylang Ylang tree where the top of the water is. The water just came like a roar from above - Maricao is a mile above is if you could travel in a direct line (by car it is 40 minutes).


The big mango is above the parcha mound at the top of the frame. The water is disappearing under the Troll Bridge which had water a couple feet deep roaring under it! It continues down the usually dry gully at the edge of the property. The ground is eroding down there along the fence we share with the neighbor. The previous owners of their house did like many Puerto Ricans - they dug the gully deeper to channel the water - this is a very BAD IDEA. You want water to spread out over a large area and absorb in. With rain like this I don't know what you can do but I can tell you that where the water got channeled and narrow a human could not stand up without getting knocked over. I keep putting debris and grass in the natural channels and during the dry season will try to fill them in and level out the ground before the next wet season. I will also plant vetiver in the channels (the ones that are in the sun) in an effort to slow down the crazy water! I'll post some more stills of the deluge and if I can get the videos smaller (doubtful) I'll post them - they even have the sound!

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