Road Damage

One afternoon in the middle of August we got about three inches of rain in less than an hour (I measured it). The ground was already pretty wet from rains the previous days, so pretty much all of this one just rolled down the mountainside taking everything with it. This is ... was ... the road up to our lot, and some of the rocks you see here are eight to ten inches across. The damage was much worse in other areas, and the washes were just roaring with water. It took me all day to repair the road so that vehicles could get through. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever be able to sell the Caterpillar when we finish the house.

This is the same road a little further down the hillside. It's not easy to tell in this picture, but the road is now about two thirds its previous width and the chasm to the right drops straight down about seven feet.

Amazingly, the drainage measures we had taken to protect our lot worked great and we had very little erosion anywhere except the normal washes. The house held up fine and was clean as soon as the water ran off the slab.