NORMALLY A QUIET, SLOW RUNNING STREAM THAT FILLS ABOUT HALF THE AREA BETWEEN THE TREES.
	We’re sixty miles from the closest major highway, yet outside it sounds like the L.A. freeway at rush hour. The sound of rain on the roof of our motor home is so loud we can barely hear the phone ringing. Visions of the “hundred year flood” begin to flash across our minds.

WATER ALONG SIDE THE ROAD, FOUR FEET DEEP AND ABOUT TO GO OVER THE ROADWAY.
	We run to the car in an effort to stay dry but another downpour, from clouds that remind us of the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment of Disney’s Fantasia, drenches us before the fifty yards is covered.

MY FRIEND'S DRIVEWAY THAT USED TO BE.

We braved the rain planning to go to the local library so we could get some Internet work done. Turning onto the gravel road that leads to the pavement a quarter mile away, there’s a small river running across the lane half way to the main road. Normally, we walk to town and the sounds from the small irrigation ditch that runs through a culvert under the road is pleasant. Most times, quail and small birds ply the area in search of food with the lingering odor of skunk sometimes hanging in the air. This time it’s drive slowly with water a few inches below the doors on our pickup and no birds in sight. Where the skunk hunts is under water with a large sawed off end of a tree swirling around and around in the vortex created by too much water trying to squeeze through too small a culvert.

ROADSIDE DITCH RUNNING FULL AND MORE WATER COMING.

The rising water has backed up into the neighbor’s yard and, already having immersed the foundation, is quickly approaching the door sill. On our return trip it’s above the sill and we have visions of water in their back porch and kitchen. Before the creek, a mile or so away, jumped its banks no one would have believed water would flood the yard so quickly. Once the water came, there was just too much. Sandbagging would have been an exercise in futility. When we got to the library it was raining lightly with another large, black and ominous cloud bank pushing its way over the mountains to the west. A few minutes later the trap door in the bottom of the clouds opened and Mother Nature paid no heed to the “Quiet Please” sign.

WHERE WE WALKED EAST TO IS IN THE FIRST PICTURE. WHILE WE WERE THERE, A LARGE TREE FELL IN THE WATER, THE BANK QUICKLY ERODED AWAY WITH SMALLER TREES AND BOULDERS BEING WASHED AWAY. WE LEFT BEFORE THE BANK WHERE WE WERE STANDING FELL INTO THE RAGING TORRENT.

After returning home, we walked across the soggy field to take a look at the irrigation ditch that runs through the small farm’s southern edge. We’re used to seeing a tranquil six foot wide stream flowing lazily by on its designated path through the valley. Now it was necessary to moved the irrigation pump and motor. Usually the pump has to be primed because the water is so far below ithe pump won’t otherwise pick it up. Pastures on all sides looked like lakes with cows and other large animals standing along the edges in water to the first leg joint, with geese and chickens taking refuge on anything high enough to keep them out of the water.

A MILE OR SO NORTH, A STREAM HAD JUMPED ITS BANKS AND WATER CAME FROM ALL DIRECTIONS, INCLUDING FROM IRRIGATION DITCHES THAT HAD BEEN OVERWHELMED.

We walked east to where the sound of water rushing by was the loudest. Whole trees were being swept past while limbs and boulders fell from eroding banks into the rushing torrent. The day before we’d gone to a friend’s house where half his driveway had been washed away. He’d poured five yards of large rock and gravel over the end of the culvert that ran under the driveway and stuck out of the gaping hole the water had left. After walking back home, I drove over to see if I could help our friend in any way. This time his entire driveway was gone, including asphalt that had still been in place the day before.

I TOOK THIS PHOTO FROM THE BRIDGE AT REGULAR LENSE SPEED, ONE CAN SEE HOW FAST THE WATER IS TRAVELING.
	Up the valley, stream banks washed away and hundred year old trees fell into the rushing water taking fifty year old bridges down stream with them. At another bridge a state worker was pulling a large tree out of the water with a backhoe. If it had remained against the bridge other debris coming down the overflowing stream would have piled against it, overloading the bridge and washing it away.

EVEN HOUSES THAT WERE BUILT THREE FEET ABOVE THE GROUND LEVEL HAD WATER INSIDE.

Houses a mile away from any stream or creek had water running across the floors. A stream up the valley had jumped its banks, over ran the roadside ditches and flooded yards, fields and homes. One eighty year old couple, who have lived in the valley all their lives, said they’d never seen anything like it before. Another man told me, “I was born here and have lived here my whole life. Nothing like this has happened in those 62 years.”

SHORTLY AFTER THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN, MORE OF THE ROAD WAS WASHED AWAY AND I WOULD HAVE HAD TO GO BACK THE WAY I'D COME FROM, WHICH HAD BEEN A LAKE WHEN I HAD.
	Anyone who’s lived in Oregon for any length of time knows what rain is like. Usually, rains of the last week’s intensity are confined to the west side of the state and the coast. Eastern Oregon can be a lot colder and experience more snow than the rest of the state but flooding isn’t the usual pattern.

IS CLIMATE CHANGE REALLY A FACT?
	If someone tells me the climate isn’t changing, I may not believe them.

A WATERFALL INTO FAIRGROUND BUILDINGS

IF YOU LIVE IN EASTERN OREGON AND NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER, VIDEOS OR ARTICLES WRITTEN CONTACT LARRY R. MILLER.
	Larry R. Miller has been a freelance writer and photographer since 1982. He can be reached at his web site, www.larryRmiller.com

MORE PICTURES SUBMITTED BY MY FRIEND TOM
	Yesterday this was a bridge.

AND, THIS WAS A ROAD!
	And, it got worse the farther you went.

NO ONE WOULD SUSPECT THIS BEING A ROAD JUST A DAY OR TWO AGO.

THE ORANGE TUBES ON THE LOWER RIGHT OF THE PICTURE ARE FIBER OPTIC CABLES.

FISHING WON'T BE THE SAME.
	This was one of my favorite spots with a tranquil pool next to the bank. If fish can breathe water that's thick enough to cut with a knife and swim for days into that torrent, it may not take too long to get back to normal.