Riders of the Storm: Our Journey Through Wild Days Surviving One Atmospheric River After Another In Our Mountain Retreat
Facing the full fury of days and nights of heavy rain, high winds, overflowing creeks and floods as we fight to save buildings and make it through the storms.
As the latest in a series of atmospheric river rain storms rages outside, I have come to our meditation hall in the early hours before dawn to light a fire in the big black wood stove.
Beautiful orange flames are dancing behind its clear glass door, as the fire catches and rises up from its carefully laid bed of paper and kindling, gets hot and starts spreading warmth through the hall.
This storm is so powerful, like the few before it, that one “severe weather advisory” after another has been flashing across the screen of our phones, with warnings of dangerously high winds and many inches of rain all through the coming day, and night on into the following day.
We have been in the path of one atmospheric river after another for many days now, each bringing major storms that are far more forceful and destructive than any we’ve seen in a very long time.
As someone on the news said, “Yeah, we need the rain, but we don’t need it all at once!”
Here on Still Mountain, we have taken damage from the near hurricane force winds, but we still count ourselves fortunate as far worse things are happening all over the state…from beaches and piers being washed away, tsunami level waves battering homes and towns for days on end, mudslides. washed out bridges and roads, flooding everywhere as creeks and rivers overflow, trapping people in threatening scenarios requiring dramatic rescues or being found later drowned in their cars and homes.
Just up the road from our sanctuary, a raging creek opened a sinkhole which swallowed a car and stranded dozens of travelers.
Even inside in the safety of this warm meditation hall, I can hear the screeching winds and the dramatic drumming of rain on the roof as I write this.
Two mornings ago, during the previous storm, my partner Jaya, came into my tiny house in emergency mode and roused me from a deep blissful slumber.
I had fallen asleep the night before to howling winds and rain pounding on the roof with such fury that my little home was rocking back and forth on its wheels like a ship riding high waves on a stormy sea.
“You gotta get up! You won’t believe how bad it is! We are about to lose the shop!” I threw on my clothes, boots and rain gear and followed her out into the storm still raging outside.
As I walked through the rain, through puddles deep as lakes with muddy shores, I saw that our orderly little world of the day before was radically changed.
Our tractor shed had been completely torn apart as if hit by a tornado, with pieces of it still flying around.
The roof of our store room, which has withstood years of storms, was ripped open and gone, allowing the rain to pour in.
The heavy tarp roof of our newly built Bundle Shop was peeled almost all the way off and the high winds were still tearing at it.
We focused all our energy on trying to save this building where we make firewood bundles that we sell on our firewood stand to supplement our meager income.
As rain pelted against our coats with so many little bombs of ice cold drops that it was hard to see or even harder to hear each other, we worked together to pull the tarp back up over the big arched roof.
After a fierce battle against the wind, we got it back up, but we knew that the moment we let go, it would be torn off again.
I will never forget seeing Jaya standing in the shop door, literally pulling the two leading edges of the flapping tarp to herself, as she was being thrown around and almost lifted off her feet.
I knew I had to do something quick or this was going to end up as a futile and tragic situation.
I ran into our main building’s big wood shop and grabbed a one inch thick by 100 foot long truck rope from the rope locker.
I hurried back across the now swampy yard, yelling at Jaya, “Hold on just a little longer! I have an idea…”
After tying one end of the rope to a post by the shop door, I walked along the shop’s sides, back and front, pulling the rope against the tarp, going round and round it several times, pulling it tighter and tighter.
By then, Jaya was thoroughly soaked, cold and exhausted and left me to finish, while she went back inside to get warm.
I kept winding the rope against the shop a few more times and finally tied it off.
Though the wind still clawed at the roof tarp, the many rounds of rope were holding it fast and firmly down.
We had saved the shop, which has withstood everything the storms have thrown at it since.
We were in a lull between storms for most of today, with no wind or rain for a few hours. There was even a short time when the dark swirling clouds parted to let now unfamiliar sunlight bath the land, before the curtain was drawn back across it and darkness resumed.
The storm pummeling us now is described as a mega storm, which all the previous ones were simply setting the stage for.
All of the streams in this valley are full or overflowing, the ground is saturated and we are warned that this storm will cause widespread flooding, power outages, bridge and road destruction and grave danger to all living beings.
I used today’s lull to bring in as much firewood as I could to our hearth and make sure everything was battened down against the wind. The storm is predicted to last for two full days and a night,
Today we also laid in a good supply of food, drinking water and propane for my tiny house’s furnace.
Going into town to buy supplies was treacherous because, though we do have a big gnarly lifted four by four pick up truck that can go almost anywhere with impunity, I naively went out in our little Prius.
Most of the fields surrounding Still Mountain are flooded, as well as the roads leading into town.
I came to a place where a river of boiling water was racing across 100 feet of the main road, and, without pausing to consider if it was prudent to do so or not, drove into it.
I realized almost instantly that I had just done something really crazy, as water planed up in plumes almost as high my window, making a wake like a boat behind the car pushing through it.
I kept the Prius moving ahead and realized I had to speed up to get cross as fast as possible, but three quarters of the way, where the water was at its deepest, our little car’s engine began to sputter.
I felt a strong current trying to push us off the road, and suddenly had visions of videos I had just watched of cars being swept away in situations just like this with people in them and the frantic rescue attempts by heroic bystanders smashing windows to save the occupants.
I prayed intensely to God “Please keep this car running and get us through safely to the other side!”
Though the engine sputtered more and more, our little car did continue moving forward until we came out of the river onto clear pavement.
A sheriff’s deputy, who setting up a barricade to prevent anyone else from trying to cross, called out to me “ That was incredibly stupid! Its a miracle you made it through!”
I rolled down my window as I passed him, “Yes, you are right! I won’t be doing stupid things like that again!”
I was grateful that the stores I needed to get supplies from were open, and even more grateful to head home safely on back roads still above the reach of flooding waters.
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Thanks for your comment! We are doing OK…
Yes, it has been wild and scary, but I am also grateful that even when the wind is howling the loudest and so hard that it seems every tree will fall and my tiny house knocked off its wheels that that has not happened.
I do whatever I can to limit the damage and get everything battened down between the storms, but once the next one hits, I choose to revel in and enjoy the extreme tumultuous weather.
I know that whatever happens then is out of my control.
I know that “this too shall pass”. However bad it gets, i know the storm will move on, and that calm and even sunshine will return.
I choose to see each storm as a rare opportunity and so as i lay in bed of my little house rocking back and forth and up and down like a ship in rough seas, i choose to enjoy it, see it as a blessing and trust that God is here, looking after us.
Gosh, so sorry to hear the storm has hit you and your surrounding area with such force. I hope you have been able to hold the fort down, literally! Sending prayers your way. 💟