Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group floods in California, hot as Hades in OZ

Hi Wind rider
I was watching the news last night,the floods look bad there.Are you in a safe area? Is more rain expected now? I hope and pray all our KA family in the flood areas are safe!!!!
The firies here are going to try to backburn today so there will be lots of smoke around,if it gets too smoky I might go to a friends place to avoid it.My daughter has taken my 12 year old son for the last 2 days to get him away from the smoke as he gets asthma,she has gone back to work today and I dont want him in the thick of the smoke,so leaving for the day is a good plan.
Anyway I just wanted to say,please stay safe!!!!!!!

Shirl

(I don't want to jinx it, but...) we are in a pretty safe area in the foothills. We are slightly downstream of a very small resevoir and went to see the water flying over the emergency spillway Saturday...WOW! There was a huge plume of spray flying up about 50 feet from the waterfall hitting the rocks in the canyon. That lake and the spillway can take a lot more water before it's got a problem, altho it's full. They drain it nearly dry every fall preparing for this sort of thing. Even if that river gets a lot of water it shouldn't reach us. We had more of a problem a few years back when our driveway and garage flooded a little from the nearby irrigation canal overflow making this huge geyser...ooops....a little remedial shovel work (american rural engineering ) now sends that water down the road to the stream.
My husband works less than a half mile from a big levee right on the Sacramento River. Right now the water flood control system in the greater Sacramento area is working well and all the levees are holding. They have this HUGE alternate river pathway called the " Yolo Bypass" they open up just for this sort of thing, that goes around the city, and they open the floodgates, and part of the river goes out over thousands of acres. But the Napa valley (famous grape growing area) and some areas farther west are a real mess because they did get a lot of flooding.
The main thing for us right now is not Being Stupid and driving into deep water just because you've got a truck or SUV and 4Wheel drive and thinking you're invincible. And keeping your eyes on the weather reports and the news.
I looked at the government weather satelite picture and then the official forecast and it looks like rain for a few more hours tonight, then about a 12 hour break, then another smaller system with showers, then...a break for awhile. But it keeps changing.
You stay safe too!

1st off, Happy new year!!! second, well my goodness this rain is incredible!!! I'm on the outskirts of the worst of it altho there is a flashflood warning near my area. I don't know how far flash floods can go if they decide to break loose but i think we'll be ok over here. But...I thought I was wishing early this morning, on my way to work that perhaps I'd like to have a paddle just in case I needed to paddle my way out of the apartment complex parking lot!!! Holy cow, I opened the door once just for fun and saw the water was almost parallel with where the bottom of the door meets the bottom of the car...couple more inches and I may have had water in the car but thats only in the parking lot. bad drainage. the road was good as long as you stayed in the middle lane, all the right lanes were flooding. Its a bad rain for us but I feel bad for the sacramento folks! those poor people are getting pounded! Any of you out there in the middle of that area...I have high hopes for you and hope that you will be ok I have a friend at work from Oz that was mentioning that her mum called with a report of 115 degrees! Good heavens, you guys need some of this rain!!! hang in there... Amy

It's a pretty warm winter here in Oklahoma and a dry one too. There are fires in the south. Last night I went out to eat and the air everywhere smelled like smoke. I haven't watched the news lately to find out if there are any in this area but after I went through the explosion of Mt St Helens in 1980 in Washington state I know that it wouldn't be unheard of to have smoke travel this far. I was in Eastern Washington camping when the mountain exploded and it looked like it was night during the day. Parts of Eastern Washington got covered with more ash than my home town that was only about 75 miles "as the crow flies" from the mountain. Driving home in that with a wet rag over my face was an experience I'll never forget.

Hope everyone stays safe.

Sharon