Snow-day?

Well, we had a "snow-day" today, except that it wasn't for snow. Last night I actually felt as if it was December or something at home in Indiana (except it wasn't snow). It has been gray, rainy, foggy, and windy up here since Sunday, and last night it rained pretty hard all night. Well, all the creeks and lakes and stuff are filling up and flooding. The road out to work was closed down because of a mud slide that went over the road (however, there was an alternate route). We continued on and saw lots of flooded areas.

We got out to the construction area where they are working to lay the foundation for the road. There is a lake that they put the road right through the middle of (the lake isn't deep), and it had risen several feet and was running over the road. The construction company was out there and let us drive across. However, a few minutes later, they apparently shut the road down for fear of it washing out (one of the other company vehicles wasn't allowed to cross). We got out to work, and then Anchorage OK'd us taking the day off. The construction company allowed us to cross (with a pilot car) so we could go back home.

The seas during this storm are probably 15-20 feet, and there is like a 4 foot chop on top of it. I think I could see some 6-8 foot waves near where I'm living. It was really windy (like a solid 30-40 mph in places). It was raining in sheets, too. We got back to the mudslide area and they had the road cleared off (now like 4 hours later), however, the guard rail was really dented and moved because of the force of the mud. Water was running off the hills and mountains everywhere. It is supposed to rain through Saturday, so we will see how it turns out.

Anyway, so we got a "snow-day," or what should actually be called a "rain-day" or "flood-day" or "mudslide-day!" And yes, this is the kind of stuff they show on the Weather Channel, but here it is relatively common occurrence when it rains really hard. Here are some pictures.

Here we are about drive back on the road that crosses the lake.

There were whitecaps on the lake!

Here you can see the water running off of the hills and mountains.