Inside a developing Disaster::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Rain continues today quite heavy following rain almost every day within eyesight of us here for the last 8 days. Likely this will be declared as a new disaster since there was a distinct gap in time between the events that caused the damage for 1658 that I am working on and this mess. The soil in this entire region is and has been totaly saturated for many days now, we have had several accumulations of the average annual rainfall here in the last month and a half. The Rio Grand is running bank to bank (like a mile wide)and has white caps like you see in the bottom of the grand canyon. New Mexico is a green splotch of rain on the radar of weather bug.. (if you do that sort of thing.. look at zip code 79925 on weatherbug)

The drains everywhere are full of sand and clay so the water has defeated the drainage systems in place and goes where it wants.. the streets run hub deep everywhere and if the current rates continue I10 will be closed today, both directions, till it subsides. I am personally worried that they are going to have to begin releasing water from Elephant buttes reservoir in New Mexico which will further strain the Rio Grande.. fortunately east of here that river gets very steep banks and flooding is unlikely.. but river crossings will go down for sure.. :-D

Days off are a challenge when the weather is bad like that, but I got all my chores done and went to eat Sushi. There is a feeling of anticipation for a second or expanded declaration and the locals are antsy about additional help. I do have to say that everyone here is working. There are no piles of debris that the storm piled up 6 weeks ago, someone has worked every one of them.. they are shovelig muck while it is still raining.. the locals are out with what they have trying to make things better. This is not Louisiana and I am proud to be here with this bunch.