Weather news (mostly for fairoriana)
Did we mention it's been a little bit wet? Just a touch? We have had a pineapple express parked over us for the month of November. As of this morning, we were between 6 and 7 inches of rainfall for the month of November in Mineral. Another 4-10 inches is predicted. 1 inch fell between midnight and 7 AM, and there were 3 inches on Saturday.
I'm glad I'm staying in town tonight. I think we are getting to the stage of soil saturation where slides become problematic. When your access to civilization is courtesy of one chokepoint road, cut between steep hillsides, bounding rivers, and lakes, well, you become sensitive. Especially if there's a history of problems. It's not fair, I suppose, to say that highway 7 is my sole access to work. I could also drive south and east, down to Morton, across to Centralia, to connect with I-5 (which also tends to flood in Centralia), up through Olympia, Tacoma, and across to the east side. Call it 3 hours, in perfect weather. In further nightmare scenarios, one of my co-workers reminded me that sometimes the 520 floating bridge is closed because of high winds. That's the bridge the bus takes. I did figure out the bus route, at least. 2 transfers, but such is life.
Anyway, dad just relayed a message from mom that the Kernahan Bridge over the Nisqually is "out". Whether that means "gone" or "damaged", I don't know, but it's no good. Skate Creek is up that way, but this late in the season, it's probably closed. But there is a whole little development over that bridge. Technically in Lewis County, but accessible only from Pierce County and that bridge for the winter months.
We went over the Nisqually this morning, and holy wow. It was filled bank to bank, and there were genuine LOGS floating down it. It was that muddy turbulent color that spells flooding, instead of the normal milky color of glacial runoff. We don't get flood warnings on it much, because it starts at the mountain, runs some 20 miles, mostly through National Park, and then empties into a hydro lake. The dam controls levels after that. And right now, the lake (Alder) is very very empty. Well, it was empty. It is filling rapidly. Instead of the usual meandering alluvial fan, there was fast-running water all the way down to where the road diverges from the lakeside.
Lake Meridian was actually a road for the part that they've done all the major construction on, but did have 6-8 inch standing water across from the mall. The grates on 405 were all lifted up so the leaves would stop clogging them. I have a window open reporting on the 520 bridge status, but it all seems okay now.
UPDATE:
Kids have been retrieved safely (did I mention that they are on the wrong side of that chokepoint?).
Mom and dad posit that the approaches to the Kernahan bridge washed out, and not the bridge itself.
River channel in Alder Lake no longer visible (at least I think that's what he said).
3.5 inches in Mineral from midnight to 4 PM.
I'm glad I'm staying in town tonight. I think we are getting to the stage of soil saturation where slides become problematic. When your access to civilization is courtesy of one chokepoint road, cut between steep hillsides, bounding rivers, and lakes, well, you become sensitive. Especially if there's a history of problems. It's not fair, I suppose, to say that highway 7 is my sole access to work. I could also drive south and east, down to Morton, across to Centralia, to connect with I-5 (which also tends to flood in Centralia), up through Olympia, Tacoma, and across to the east side. Call it 3 hours, in perfect weather. In further nightmare scenarios, one of my co-workers reminded me that sometimes the 520 floating bridge is closed because of high winds. That's the bridge the bus takes. I did figure out the bus route, at least. 2 transfers, but such is life.
Anyway, dad just relayed a message from mom that the Kernahan Bridge over the Nisqually is "out". Whether that means "gone" or "damaged", I don't know, but it's no good. Skate Creek is up that way, but this late in the season, it's probably closed. But there is a whole little development over that bridge. Technically in Lewis County, but accessible only from Pierce County and that bridge for the winter months.
We went over the Nisqually this morning, and holy wow. It was filled bank to bank, and there were genuine LOGS floating down it. It was that muddy turbulent color that spells flooding, instead of the normal milky color of glacial runoff. We don't get flood warnings on it much, because it starts at the mountain, runs some 20 miles, mostly through National Park, and then empties into a hydro lake. The dam controls levels after that. And right now, the lake (Alder) is very very empty. Well, it was empty. It is filling rapidly. Instead of the usual meandering alluvial fan, there was fast-running water all the way down to where the road diverges from the lakeside.
Lake Meridian was actually a road for the part that they've done all the major construction on, but did have 6-8 inch standing water across from the mall. The grates on 405 were all lifted up so the leaves would stop clogging them. I have a window open reporting on the 520 bridge status, but it all seems okay now.
UPDATE:
Kids have been retrieved safely (did I mention that they are on the wrong side of that chokepoint?).
Mom and dad posit that the approaches to the Kernahan bridge washed out, and not the bridge itself.
River channel in Alder Lake no longer visible (at least I think that's what he said).
3.5 inches in Mineral from midnight to 4 PM.