The "Great Flood"

Wow, I'm new to blogging and thought I'd try to post at least once a week but here it's been almost TWO weeks and I'm finally getting around to doing my second post. Oh well...

Two weeks ago we had some unpleasant "excitement" here in our little one horse town of Black Canyon City, AZ (about 30 miles north of Phoenix). We got 10 inches of rain within 4 days. In a place where the average yearly rainfall is 7 to 8 inches, that's a lot of water! Many people had to evacuate their homes as the Agua Fria River (that runs through the main part of town) rose in some places to almost 16 feet above flood stage. There is also a second river, The Black Canyon River, that flooded some residences and washed out a river crossing. The two rivers converge, but fortunately their point of convergance is past most of the town.  The river came closer to us than I had at first realized, but we are fine, safe and sound and high and dry. Here are a few pictures I took both during the flooding, and afterwards (yes, I was out there in the wind and rain, snapping pictures!)

The Agua Fria River:

Looking upriver from the bridge...

    

...and downriver.

The Black Canyon River :

Looking upriver...

...and downriver.

The Aftermath:

Some people have snow plows...we have mud plows! The whitish looking area is the sun reflecting off the deep layer of mushy, wet, icky mud.

What's left of someone's water storage tank. It ended up under the bridge:

An overturned vehicle stuck in the muddy riverbed and covered with debris.

After seeing all this mess, I can sympathize even more with those who are devastated by other natural disasters.