We had a significant rain event on Thursday, October 31st. Ok, I admit that’s a bit of an understatement! It was a rainfall of biblical proportions! That may be a an exaggeration too, but one of my friends reminded me that a cubit is equal to 45.72 cm. On the plus side, our rain water tanks and ponds are full. On the minus side, our road is severely damaged.

We received 5.9 inches of rain early Thursday morning. I estimate it was over a period of about 3 hours. We were actually lucky – areas near us received over 14 inches of rain that morning. In addition to the amount of water and how quickly it came down, the ground was already wet from earlier rainfalls. The water had to go somewhere and this rain mostly ran off.

To put it all in perspective, in October we received 12.1 inches total, so this one was about half of the entire month’s rain. Also, we average about 30 inches in a year, so October was already above average.

I like to tell people that we average 30 inches of rain a year, but most years are below average. Think about it!

Here’s what I mean by water always wins. Our nicely graded and maintained road put up a valiant battle, but in the end lost to the water flow. It’s really not a fair fight. Once a channel begins to erode, more water flows through it and accelerates the erosion.

Here’s a view of the main section of our road. The road base is about 6 inches deep and you can see where it has eroded down to the soil.

Road Damage

Here’s another section near some small culverts. The culverts are too small in fact, and were completely overwhelmed. The road is thicker here, about 12 inches deep.

Road Damage Near Small Culverts

This shot shows how far the road material was carried by the flowing water. It looks like 30 feet to me.

Road Material Washed Away Near Small Culverts

Here’s one of our ponds – nice and full!

The Pond Is Full

As I said, we were lucky. All we suffered was a damaged road. Some folks had flooded homes and some lost their lives.

This was a serious reminder of the power of water.