Rain, Rain Go Away/Falling Trees

Another rain report from the soggy northwest: It's wet. It's staying wet. And it'll get wetter. We've been promised at least six more days of solid rain, and that limit is probably just because the forecasters can't see any further ahead. But I'm betting it'll be more rain.

More trees fell on houses yesterday, creeks are still flooding, although some started to recede yesterday during a brief afternoon dry spell, and the Willamette River has overshot its banks in some areas south of here creating even more flooding. I just heard there's a large mud and debris landslide across the Historic Columbia River Highway. Although that's not really uncommon when it gets ridiculously wet. And parts of US 101 along the coast have washed away or have landslides - I don't think it sounded too serious, though, so I hope none of this is going to stop me from being able to get to the beach next weekend.

Hey, I should tell you about the Big Windstorm of 1996, which caused three of their neighbor's trees to fall at my parents house. It was windy, wet and blowy. Mom and Dad and my brother, Steve, were home, and Dad decided to move the car further up the street where there were fewer trees - just in case. He parked, walked back to the house, and while he was still standing across the street in front of their house watching the weather, several things happened all at once. One huge fir tree fell straight across the length of the roof of the house, one huge fir tree fell completely across the front yard and, while he was watching those two trees fall across the house and yard, a third tree was falling directly toward him. He didn't see it until it fell on him. Luckily, he was not badly hurt, but they didn't know that until after the neighbors called the police and an ambulance, and they came and got him out from under the tree and rushed him to the hospital to check him out (after all, he was 76 years old and had just been hit by a giant falling tree) and he was released that evening with just bumps and bruises. Very lucky guy. The next day The Oregonian (major newspaper in the area) carried a lovely photo of the house surrounded by fallen trees.

Here's a phone call I don't want to get again: "Honey, this is mom. I'm calling to tell you that a tree fell on your dad and he's at the hospital." Me: "WHAT???"