New Year's Eve 2005 Devastation

We woke up to find our view of pastureland and Tomales Bay had turned into a lake overnight. Where did the cows go? It was a rainy and windy night. Gusts clocked at 50-60 mph where we are, and 80 at the Lighthouse. Susan didn't sleep all night, as she kept hearing trees cracking and rocks falling. We have a large tree on a hillside next to the house, so instead of visions of sugarplums dancing in Susan's head, she was plagued with visions of a smashed house. David slept fine and when Susan woke him up at 3:00 am, to get him to worry with her, he said "to wait until morning." Little did they know of the destruction that had been going on all around them. Our closest neighbors had 2 trees fall and, we found ourselves trapped by a mudslide on our driveway on our way out to photograph nature at it's craziest.

(All photos are below the text)

Take a look at the two pictures below taken from our balcony. The picture on the left (published in local newspaper/by Susan) with an arrow is pointing at a huge chunk of land that we saw rapidly zoom by. It must be about 200 feet long and 10 feet wide. We were amazed. We still had no idea that destruction lay all around us, our inner circle as well as across Northern California. The picture on the right is about 45 seconds later.

We also saw this area of land (which became water within an hour) form one of our favorite critters. Take a look? Can you guess what it is? We won't tell you, you'll have to mail us back and tell us your guess. The correct answer, not just critter, but species, gets bragging rights.

Okay, noone seems to be able to guess this critter, so here is another clue. The head is the upper right, facing right. Most people have been guessing whale, and I suppose we can see that if you look from left to right. But that's not the answer. We have yet to receive a correct answer!

We have to clean up the drive-way before we can leave. And yes, after Susan took the photo, she picked up a shovel! We were still quite ignorant until we made it down to the end of our road (200 ft. away) and saw emergency vehicles going by and dirt and downed trees everywhere. Water flowing from the hills sounded like Yosemite Falls. The picture on the right is at the bottom of our hill/crossroads to our driveway up the hill.

We didn't realize we were stuck in Inverness, as were many people. One road in and out, equals no road in conditions like this. The only thing to do is stand around, take pictures, speculate, gossip, convey information heard from others (like the vet hospital was getting flooded and fireman broke in to rescue the animals). Residents helped to sandbag. Susan's picture on right was surprisingly published the week of January 12, the week after the storm coverage.

Photo below left we call Drowning Mailboxes (published in local newspaper/by Susan). The one on the right is, according to Susan, the saddest of them all. There was one small herd of cows who were caught in the deluge and found themselves on the only patch of grass they could find. We stopped to talk to them and they ran over. They were probably uncomfortable as they needed to be milked. The cow on the right.... her forlorn and lost expression says it all. (update: non of the Giacomini cows were lost.. this herd stayed safe and well fed)

The boat the "Point Reyes" is a landmark, left behind many, many years ago. It usually sits on land. One month ago, Susan was able to stand behind it and view the Yellow-crowned Night Heron (a very rare bird in these parts) that showed up on October 12. (published)

On left, is the Inverness Store (in red), just purchased from it's long time owners 2 years ago. The new owners, had flood insurance, but it did not cover the contents. They lost quite a bit, but our community rallied around them. The owners could not get through all the mudslides and floods to take care of the store, but the locals took action themselves and started pumping out water and the next day went in and help clear out the damage. The picture on the right, is Susan of course, standing on "Waldo's Dike" which should of been land. Within two hours the land you do see was swallowed by water. The highest tide of the year was coming in from the north/left fighting with the flood waters coming in from the south/right. As you can see from the turbulance, the flood waters won, creating class 2 rapids. (published)

This image is of Rigdon Currie and Trish Johnson's grandchildren, Sienna and Patric, looking out toward the "levee" road. The calmness of the water doesn't show the turbulance just past it and the destruction on both sides. (published)

Update: Between December 16, 2005 and January 3, 2006, Point Reyes National Seashore received over 22 inches of rain. Major damage occured throughout the PRNS, with trails closed, the road to Limantour closed and major culverts being clogged and flooded are being cleared and kept open. It seems it's an ongoing battle, despite our two days of sunshine. Several park residences were flooded. Heard many newborn sheep were washed away in the flood waters further north of us, and some moms went in after them to rescue only to be lost too. Very sad. The crab fisherman have not been able to go out, so it's possible they will lose money this year. Everywhere David and Susan go we see mudslides, downed trees, people trash stuck in the nature debris, we saw an entire hottub amongst other stuff where there should be just a baseball field in Pt. Reyes Station. Roads cracked and sliding. I believe our Governater has declared states of emergency in 8 counties so far, ours being one. Between the town of Inverness and the turnoff to our home, approximately 1 mile, we counted 20 midslides. 2 devastating, 1 major and the rest relatively minor. This was just a snapshot of the devastation in the surrounding area, as well as in west marin, and the entire county, as well as other areas of California. A winter season, none of us will ever forget.