Wednesday, April 6, 2011

December 1964, 35 inches of rain!

     For the first time in many years, all the water reservoirs in the state of California are full, and the snow pack in the mountains is deep. The month of March had the steady, prolonged type of rain the ranchers like, the kind that soaks in deeply and keeps the springs running all summer. Sadly, some people have paid a heavy price for all of this glorious moisture. Houses and roads are slipping slowly into the canyons. Nobody is really to blame, Mother Nature is a bitch.
     It is especially sad to me to see someone lose their valuable possessions. I’ve seen that devastation many times at house fires. I’ve always thought that it was strange when a hurricane or a major flood destroys a bunch of houses, FEMA or some other governmental agency steps in a provides new housing for them. But, if ONE house burns or slides down the canyon they just look at it like it was a small loss, and not do a thing. Let me tell you folks… when you lose everything, you loose everything. It doesn’t matter how many other people lost everything, it only matters that YOUR family is doing without.
     After putting everything in context, it seem like a good time to talk about December 1964, where a good percentage of people lost everything to a major rainfall. There was a slide similar to the dean creek slide at least every five miles. Most of the bridges and roadways were also washed out. Not just in Humboldt County, but all over northern California. I won’t even try to describe it because people can’t picture it in their minds. Even when they can picture how bad it was they start trying to lay blame. Like it was caused by ranching, logging, road-building or some other fault of man, but it wasn’t that it just rained incredibly hard.
     How hard, you say? Well there was 35 inches of rain in December, the first part of which collected as snow, about 1 foot deep in the Valleys like Laytonville and Branscomb. And about 3 feet deep on Bell Springs ridge, and about 4 feet in Kettenpom. The rain then turned warm and started raining like a thundershower. In the last five days it rained 27.5 inches. The snow melted with the torrential rain. “In the last 4 hours of the heavy rain, it rained 7 inches, and in one of those last hours it rained 4 inches.”
I not telling you this to belittle the loss of the people today, but this is one of the rare opportunities that I’ve ever had to try to convey to people how hard it rained in 1964.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ernie,

Long time reader - first time commenting. This is a good time to recall December 1964. And also, the Great Flood of 1861-1862. Little is said about that Great Flood, but it bears remembering. The flooding lasted weeks and inundated everywhere from Riverside County (called an "inland sea" by papers there) to the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valleys, the Willamette Valley, the Yakima Valley, and as far north as the Province of Alberta! We should note that the Great Flood occurred before any substantial human development in these areas. It can just flat precipitate when it wants to, and we are ill-prepared for it. One day it will repeat, and the consequences will be staggering.

Ernie Branscomb said...

I know a person that studies Flood plains for real-estate development. He says that by running computer projections from events that have already happened in history, we could have a flood NINE FEET deeper than the '64 flood.

Anonymous said...

9 feet deeper sounds like about twice as much water.

Oregon

Anonymous said...

During the Great Flood of antiquity all of the mountains were covered in water. It was a way for God to purify the Earth. Now that was a lot of water! Fortunately, God has made a promise to his people never to do that again, but every now and then he reminds us of his majesty.

Ernie Branscomb said...

I was going to point out how that would be impossible, but I forgot that God is magic...

Anonymous said...

Well, if magic is Ernie's way of being able to comfortbaly talk about the Holy Spirit, then magic it was. Scientists have discovered the Ark in modern day Iran, but the religious mullahs are keeping foreigners out and away from the archeological ruins. They may have already been destroyed to keep it a secret. But the word is out, and those who saw, know exactly what they saw. There was indeed a great flood, as evidenced by the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The world is still full of mystery. A child born after 1964 probably thinks that kind of flood was impossible, they have not witnessed it for themselves. The bible is our only guide to the Great Flood's impact upon our world, and it takes faith. Just because you cannot fathom the power of God, does not mean he doesn't exist. It means you're not trying hard enough. As a community we all need to help those of you who are distanced from a relationship with God. It is only through his son Jesus Christ that you will ever come to know God.

\ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
\ said...

That's why he is sometimes referred to as, "his Magicesty" ... Unfortunately, at the time of that biblical flood, we lost nearly all memory and contact with the first Word --"Ah".
And now, ever since that laundrical occasion, we are all spawned from the seed of Noah. And Noah, etymologically, means --No Ah. Get it? And so what that means is that we have been unconsciously searching, and re-searching, for the long lost Ah, the first Word. It's the yearning sound that we make when we sigh, or yawn, Ahhhhh.

The southern preacher on channel 5 puts it best, ...in the beginning, all was darkness and silence, then suddenly, like a lightningbolt signal, came, from the dark silence, a powerful voice claiming, "Ah is the Word and the Word is Gawd". But then the flood with it's cleansing power, left us with Noah(no Ah) because the baby "Ah" got thrown out with the bathwater, so to speak. And that's a lot of bathwater.

spyrock said...

well i remember that 64 flood although it didn't rain as much where i live, bear creek did rise over its banks and flood a few homes. then i remember going to the show and seeing the beatles. you know that john lennon group he said was more popular than holden caufield. you know. the catcher in the rye. the son of wheaties.
sorry, but i don't believe in all this apoliptic crap. but it is a scientific fact that corporate greed is causing imbalances in the earth crust that have an appropriate reaction. so i for one would be careful what i say. and please leave the grand canyon out of this. it's called erosion.
not delusion.

spyrock said...

not to say that i don't believe in god. just to say that there are a thousand ways to believe in god. and a thousand more than that and so on. of course, the corporate elite think they have a monopoly on god. but why should i digress on something that is so obvious.

Robin Shelley said...

Suzy, ah love you! Ah do!

Ernie Branscomb said...

Well.... It all depend On the 1,000 X 1,000 ways that you can believe in God. Ah personally believe that God can be found in anything that can be hit with a hammer.

Ernie Branscomb said...

"Ernie's Place" is rapidly becoming frivolous isn't it...

Ah think Ah like it!

\ said...

Yes there are 1000000000 ways to no god ... but these many many individual unique experiences, and/or any local society's experience of god, does not touch the common human experience --how we all realize god as the same thing. It takes effort, and many don't try hard enough, they'd rather drink beer and watch Love Boat. But I don't blame them, everything is so nice and white on that show. It's a plat-toe on the path, but it is not the end goal. The closer you get, the more difficult is the sailing. One of the last barriers to true knowledge is the idea that we are all one. But that is linear. If you think of the numeral "one", it's a straight line, that requires a beginning and an end. But there is no beginning or end, try to imagine one, you can't. You can sit around and talk about chickens and eggs all day, but that don't get er done. Nope, the circular truth is, everything that goes up must come down. And as the native cultures (who many people have told me I think in the same way as) knew so well, god is both the up and the down, god is two. They expressed this as "god is Ah-foot". As witnessed in the Buffy st. Marie song, "Spirit is Alive, God is afoot". But a deeper understanding, one that is closer to the earth, and more up to date, also, is the idea that God is not merely a foot, but a shoe. That is to say god's other side is a shoe. Sometimes it's referred to as the "down side". Remember, everything is two, even god has another side, even a hammer must have something to hit, some "other". And that other, in this way of knowing --is a shoe. Ah, ah, ah, Ah-shoe! Also known as God's sneeze, or, the big bang.

singin, bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word ...

Anonymous said...

Like I was saying ...

We had ought to be looking into the Great Flood of 1861-1862, because it was fact. There is no faith or speculation about it. It was. And it can and will happen again. So, expect it.

Robin Shelley said...

You mean, as in waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Bird IS ah word!

Robin Shelley said...

I like it, too, Ernie... a respite from "things". Thanks.

Anonymous said...

It is only through his Son, Jesus Christ, that you will be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. All other paths are false. Even Ernie has seen the Holy Spirit at work and knows of many Miracles. To deny the Lord is to dance with the devil and role the dice on your eternal salvation. I advise you strongly to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and I am willing to help you along your treacherous path. God Bless.

charlie two crows said...

To suzy.............(Starie,Starie.Nights) Their not listening still; Perhaps they never will!! Peace Girl.

Ben said...

Interesting to me that some folks in the 21st century believe the world is 6000 years old... After centuries, we are still a tribe sitting around a desert campfire, telling stories... and then damning the unbelievers.

\ said...

Charlie, Suzy took her chevy to the levy but the levy was dry ...
;)

charlie two crows said...

Suzy......Let's catch the last train for the coast, with Ah, Marley,and the Lennon Ghost. See ya at the station. Bring some nauggie and I'll bring the white sage. Peace Girl.

\ said...

sheex, (that's my word verification this time) I didn't realize your path was so treacherous Ernie! You know if you need any help shoring it up, Suzy's here for you. I've got a come-along. And you know how to find me --I'm the one dancing and rolling dice --LOL!

spyrock said...

jesus is descended from noah through shem whose line consists mainly of people of color not anglo white people. In the United States today the general view on whether someone is "black" is the One-Drop Rule -- if a person has any black ancestors s/he is considered "black", even with a clearly Anglo skin color, e.g., Mariah Carry, LaToya Jackson. (cf., for example, The Politics of Egyptology and the History Kemet (Egypt)) so would one drop be the flood we are so afraid of happening. if it were found out in that ark in iran that jesus might have had one drop of black blood, would that be the flood we are talking about. fear the beard.
and it's "aha" according to saint oprah.

charlie two crows said...

This Blog Needs A Shovelin!

Ernie Branscomb said...

Spy
My fondest hope would be that racial differences would be judged by application of "the One Drop Rule" because we are all descendants of Africa where at one time we were probably all black. That would end all racial discrimination.

Ah don’t believe in the “Great Flood” and being descendants of No-ah. I believe in Pangaea and the division of the continents through continental drift, the ice ages and the heat waves etc. Stuff that can be hit with a hammer.

Robin Shelley said...

Hallelujah!

charlie two crows said...

Ernie, Thanks for the hammer story. I didn't detect moral fiber in your sermon. So why have you verbalized for months about sex,DRUGS,and rock-n-(role)? A day will come. Norco,s and cheap beer won't take the pain away! You will seek answers from your Herb neighbours. You will send new prayers up on the SMOKE. You will call yourself a convert. We'll call you, the same as now; Hippo-Crit. C2C

Ernie Branscomb said...

Two crows
You must have read something wrong. I may often be confused, always opinionated, and sometimes wrong, but Hippo-crit? Hardly ever!

Anonymous said...

JESUS IS LORD.

Charlie Two Crows said...

Anonymous 4:58 you have mentioned your savior's name more than once. But your's eludes us. Maybe you could use ashamed!
Ernie......Hippo-crit;
Large-Critic as a writer! I did read your text several times.Keep it REAL your writing history! Peace Dude.
C2C

spyrock said...

well there was no judgement or threat. just a statement. so he is learning. i read this yurok book written by a descendent of one of the pure blood families. only thing about that is that she couldn't write and her white husband wrote it for her. the thing about their flood story is that it has a definite christian slant on it. so i don't think we are getting the correct picture of what happened. this stuff about 2012 being some kind of judgement day is just some christian bullshistry. nobody really knows what it is because there is no record of what really happened the last time this alignment took place. if there was, it was burned or destroyed by the catholic priests back in the 1500,s. so i really don't know what is going to happened and i don't think anyone else does either. i do know that the maya were into the golden rule and forgiveness and looked at each other as another yourself. en lach ech not only applied to humans but to all life, the earth, the stars, etc.
so lets not get carried away being holier than thou. create your own sacred space but leave enough space for others to create theirs.

spyrock said...

i didn't know that ernie ever claimed to be a doctor so i don't see how the hippocratic oath applies. if you've paid attention to this blog, you will see that much of the local history is oral stories passed down sometimes by people who were into the art of bullshistry, frank asbill for example, whose unpublished stories wound up as truth in genocide and vendetta. so let's be real about this. the best we can do is approximate what happened and just lay down the facts and leave the interpretation of it to the reader.
when i finally write about this subject, i'm going to channel it. i'm going to get out of the way and let the ancestors speak through me. i'm going to tell you right now that it will be bullshistry just like the rest of it, but 100 years from now there will still be people thinking they know or can find out what really happened somehow. good luck with that.