And More Rain...

More than 3.6 inches of it, last night alone. We woke to the news that downtown Laguna Beach was under 3 - 4 feet of water. The canyon was closed. The newspaper (again, for the third day in a row, despite repeated pleas, was not delivered.)

Horrors! Can you imagine the human misery!

Seriously, we were lucky, of course. Just a small leak in Ellie's studio. I managed to mop up the water with the aid of just a few beach towels.

Determined not to be outdone by the weather, we set off in search of a replacement for our missing New York Times. The village was out of the question, so we drove south at risk of life and limb, and eventually found a Starbucks on Crown Valley Parkway. NYT in hand, we found the sky clearing as we drove back north toward the village, so we decided to see how close we could get to downtown before the streets were closed; and in fact found a parking place just a couple of blocks from the main street, Forest Avenue.

The water, by this time, had subsided, but there was clear evidence of its power, flowing down the canyon to the ocean. Here's a couple of shots of the main shopping street:

Here's a view of the Pacific Coast Highway, closed by the mud flows:

The boardwalk, with the main life guard station:

The Pacific Ocean, where the runoff from the canyon creek runs through the main beach:

The High School track:

And the bottom of our own street, also blocked by mud. A few cars, we were told, had been swept down the hill.

So that was our adventure for the day. The skies are clearing now. The sun is breaking through the clouds. Hope you're dryer than we are!