The Deluge
Pray for Los Angeles.
We are slipping into the sea. We have now received twice as much rain this season (32 inches) as the fine, rainy city of Seattle. The difference, of course, is that we have built our homes of straw, and on hillsides of soft dirt and boulders, and -- look out! -- here they come sliding down!
The Hollywood Freeway was closed tonight. A 10-foot wall of mud filled a couple of condos in Hacienda Heights. Houses are sliding off their moorings in Culver City, Anaheim Hills and several other cities. A guy in Woodland Hills was buried in mud. Another guy died when he fell into a 30-foot deep sinkhole. Parts of the commuter train system have been shut down. There have been power outages throughout Southern California. A boulder crashed into a second-floor apartment and killed a 16-year-old girl as she worked at her computer. And the rain keeps coming, on its way to a hundred-year record.
We are always at least a little dramatic here, and now we are pretty sure this is the end of the world. And if it ends this way, in darkness and thunder, a wound on the left side bleeding our foolish fantasies like mud into the ocean, draining our dreams down the flood channels, the city of eternal wishing and hoping finally beached and lifeless, well, it's got to end some way.
The Hollywood Freeway was closed tonight. A 10-foot wall of mud filled a couple of condos in Hacienda Heights. Houses are sliding off their moorings in Culver City, Anaheim Hills and several other cities. A guy in Woodland Hills was buried in mud. Another guy died when he fell into a 30-foot deep sinkhole. Parts of the commuter train system have been shut down. There have been power outages throughout Southern California. A boulder crashed into a second-floor apartment and killed a 16-year-old girl as she worked at her computer. And the rain keeps coming, on its way to a hundred-year record.
We are always at least a little dramatic here, and now we are pretty sure this is the end of the world. And if it ends this way, in darkness and thunder, a wound on the left side bleeding our foolish fantasies like mud into the ocean, draining our dreams down the flood channels, the city of eternal wishing and hoping finally beached and lifeless, well, it's got to end some way.
posted by Larry Jones at 12:01 AM
6 Comments:
Sorry, MPH. I'm from Minnesota. I got out, but I feel your pain (and death and devastation).
Just don't try to upstage us in our moment of tragedy.
It sounds miserable, Larry. It wasn't long ago that you wrote about how much you were enjoying the rain. Too much of a good thing, as they say.
It's always tragic when people are hurt and killed. Please stay safe!
Kansas natural disasters always seem to happen in unpopulated areas. I really feel for you California types... hope the tragedy is over for awhile.
Sorry you're so attached to the area. If it goes into the sea, Hollywood will reconstitute itself somewhere else, so it can't be missed for very long. You yourself, despite your great merit, will not be much noted by the California news media. There will be no million dollar rescues. You sure you don't want to move? I thought I heard them saying it's the worst rain for California for 80 or 100 years. Think twice, think twice!
I can't use an ark. For myriad reasons, I cannot sail away. I, and 20 million of my closest friends, are trapped here. The leather cuffs are softly lined and do not cause pain if we don't struggle, but they are inescapable. We will all go down with our beautiful, corrupt city of dreams, and our heroism shall be noted only in the aggregate.
I wouldn't start worrying too much -- at least not until you see the animals lining up in pairs...
hope you don't get washed out!
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