Forces of Nature – Sandy River Flood

It was a little wet around Sandy River last week – about 16 inches of rain at the 6,000 ft level on Mt. Hood, Oregon, along with the thaw of a couple of feet of snow…

Sandy River Flood.

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Author: coldwaterjohn

CWJ travelled extensively with his family, having worked in eleven countries over thirty years. A keen photographer, holding a Private Pilot's Licence, he focuses mainly on landscape and aerial imagery. Having worked in the Middle East extensively he follows developments in that region with particular interest, and views with growing concern, the radicalisation flowing from Islamic fundamentalism, and the intolerance for opposing views, stemming from it.

11 thoughts on “Forces of Nature – Sandy River Flood”

  3. Thanks for that tech support, Bearsy. Boa, a friend over there sent me the link and accompanying commentary. Flash flooding, when it involves a relatively narrow river between gorges, is always an awesome sight compared to say the Moray flood plain simply filling up and become a huge deep lake, devastating though it is for the house owners affected. We live beside the Findhorn – with snow melt the river has rivsen fifty feet above its normal level in its gorges.(The Great Moray Flood 1829 @ Randolph’s Leap)

  5. It was an impressive video of the river in flood.

    Certainly most of the problems here have been due to flood plains being submerged – and not impressive in the same way. But it is devastating not only to thousands upon thousands of home owners, businesses but also to the wider community in terms of limited supplies, higher food costs and a huge loss of exports.

    I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the Findhorn does not affect you. 🙂

  6. There is a caged stone marking the flood level in 1829 beside the Findhorn at Randolph’s Leap, a very narrow point in the gorge, which is fifty feet above its normal level. The local large estate’s landscaped gardens were washed entirely away in 1829, and the English owner retreated back to civilisation, he was so distraught at losing his life’s work – gardeners were catching stranded salmon in upturned umbrellas apparently, but that was in the days when servant girls would insist in their contracts of employment that they were not to be fed salmon more than three times a week…The government is spending a great deal of money in Moray on flood prevention/alleviation work. Less than a hundred yards from our home there is now an enormous overflow channel to cope with the spates from snowmelt – so far it has been working very efficiently, but a lot remains to be done, particularly in Forres and Elgin. A couple of years ago the police had asked us to fly over the floods and photograph the extent of the spread of the water, so that they would have a better idea. Roads were so flooded that police cars couldn’t get around to check out areas – I believe there is only ONE police helicopter in the whole of Scotland – based in Strathclyde, and hired out to other forces for £4,000 per hour! I went up in an autogyro with its volunteer pilot, and my camera, and we did it on a volunteer basis for them as part of an organization called SkyWatch.

  8. At least the problem has been recognised and something is being done.

    There will be a lot of questions asked here about lack of provision. I’m already getting hot under the collar about the fact that far too many people are talking about a ‘once in a hundred years’ event, and some yesterday said it was a ‘once in five hundred years’ event… the last flood was 1976. I think they need to go back to school to learn some simple arithmetic!

  9. Yeah saw it on the local news, but not remarkable for round here at all! The last week has been Ark building time up here, the dogs haven’t been out for 4 days. Flood film is a daily staple of local TV. 6-10″ of rain in 24 hours is a regular occurrence. When the Skagit goes, houses float off their foundations and go down river, the bridges are very high because of the floods every year and the houses go underneath and sail out to sea!
    I really don’t think that there will be as much damage in Queensland as anticipated, most of the flooding was pretty passive water, a lot of mess but a lot can be cleaned up and reused. Most had ample time to safeguard their possessions. Active water generally means there is nothing left to clear up anyway!
    I think a lot has to do with the psychology of it all. Those who are not flooded regularly obviously find it far more traumatic than those that deal with it on a regular basis.
    What seriously shocked me were the people that left their farm animals to drown, it wasn’t as if the people didn’t have adequate notice in most places because they did.

  10. Just seen a sequel to this on the local news.

    Since it happened last Sunday, the river actually moved itself completely cutting off 250 people’s homes.

    They have rebuilt half that road.
    Reconnected electricity.
    Bulldozed a temporary road for access sufficient to ensure mail deliveries.
    All in six days flat!
    You should see the size of the machinery used, absolutely massive earthmovers etc.

    Now they have to put the river back in its old course.
    One has to admire the speed of getting on with it, no hand wringing or talking it to death first.

  11. I really don’t think that there will be as much damage in Queensland as anticipated, most of the flooding was pretty passive water, a lot of mess but a lot can be cleaned up and reused. Most had ample time to safeguard their possessions. Active water generally means there is nothing left to clear up anyway!

    Mostly Christina you don’t talk nonsense… this time you have.

    You are comparing a flood over a few square kilometres with one well over the size of the combined areas of Germany and France.

    Many of the houses that you think can ‘just be cleaned up’ and reused are made of wood or fibre board (asbestos) – they don’t just dry out. The one good thing to come out of this is that the old fibro houses will have to be rebuilt with something less dangerous – but it’s not good news for those having to deal with problems of demolishing and removing the debris – and there is plenty of toxic debris.

    I would have thought that you understood that when then the waters go down the crops don’t suddenly spruce up and continue growing – they’ve gone. Thousands upon thousands of acres of dead crops – or the land swept clean.

    As to the animals – where would they take them? Fine to drive your cattle and sheep a few kilometres down the road to the nearest high ground – not so easy when distances are thousands upon thousands of kilometres. One would just move them from one place to another – to drown.

    I also wonder how you would move ‘massive machinery’ over some several thousands of kilometres of water? Pray tell the Queensland government – they would delighted to hear from you.

    Great! So they restored the electricity to a few houses that were cut off – not submerged – merely cut off. Big Deal! It’s a slightly different problem when the houses and the power stations are or have been under water – or maybe the Americans didn’t bother to check whether any equipment had been damaged by flood-waters? We’re a little more careful here.

    There was no hand-wringing here or talking to death – every bit of help was mobilised including the armed forces. The Navy are sweeping the estuary collecting massive amounts of debris – concrete walk-ways, and other junk.

    To declare triumphantly that this flood was sorted within six days shows how little you understand about the sheer scale of the flooding here. You are comparing a puddle with the Great Lakes.

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