Rain! Rain! Go away!

07:00 hrs.
09 Dec 14

     Over 100 mm of rain has fallen in the Valley in the past 12 hours. Thats about 4 inches for the YOU-ALLs. And over 200 mm in the past 36 hours. So doble it to 8 inches of water. But Mother Nature is not finished withe the Left Coast just yet. The current storm system extends far out into the Pacific bringing high winds and plenty of the wet stuff. North Vancouver has had landslides in some of the canyons due to the saturated soil. There will be localized flooding in many areas of the Left Coast so be prepared. There were also over a thousand hydro customers here in the VALLEY without any power.

     And, how prepared are you! Do you have a home emergency kit? Does it contain the necessities to sustain you and your family for a period of 72 hours? Most of us don't. I do but I still have to finish off the Go Bag. Its almost done. I'll inlude pics and an explanation of everything for my intrepid fans.

   
     So, its back to the grind tomorrow.  Enough frivolity for this guy.  Over my days off I got a bunch of homework done and accompanied my BETTER HALF to her work Christmas Dinner. It wasn't much. Someone simple booked the restaurant and everyone showed up. We had to pre-order our meals. My BETTER HALF had the ham, which suspiciously looked like a cottage roll ham that would serv your Outlaws during the obligatory Sunday dinner, while I had the salmon. Now the salmon wasn't too bad. Nice glaze, a bit dry in the middle but who knows how long it sat under the salamander staying warm. All in all, it was an average tasting over priced Christmas Party meal that was served to us at the Union Street Grill on 5th Street in Courtenay. With the proper Prep and Sous I could have done better at home.

05:10 hrs.
10 Dec 14

     For our Travelling Friends who may read this, the winds and rain have been relentless. Its a Sou-Easter, meaning the tides are being driven up river while the run of is heading out to sea. The only other place for the water to go is sideways. Lewis Park and the surrounding lowland to the east of the Courtenay River is awash including the roads.  This means the access to the 5th Street Bridge is out of the question. All traffic into or out of downtown must funnel across the 17th Street Bridge unless you are creative and know how to skirt using Dove Creek, Piercy and the local logging roads.

     With the winds blowing at a sustained 51 km and gusting to 65 km I doubt very much if anyone will be walking their dog today. As this system is coming out of the south east the warm air is not conducive to putting a lot of snow at the lower elevation. The White Whale will get dumped on, as will the top of Mt. Washington. The rest of this precip will simply hit the slopes and head to the beach.  And, stay out of the woods. Those big trees have shallow roots and with a saturated soil combined with the wind it won't take much for the trees to fall like so many pick up sticks. If you don't have to go out...DON'T GO OUT!