January 12, 2005 Mud and Sludge

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The town in which we chose to build (and live) always becomes an utter mess during wet weather. Our property is located in a 100 year flood zone, and the longest side of the property hugs a dry streambed. We have special requirements in order to build in such a dangerous area. Our footings will be 6' below grade and our finish floor will be 2.5' above grade. The rainfall was at record levels, so I think we were able to see the worst case scenario.

Ironically, the rental house in which we currently reside, which is well out of the floodplain, was much more dangerous. The hill behind our house collapsed, fortunately we have a strong retaining wall and shovels.

We weren't able to drive out of our street to check the property during the worst of the storms. The access street was very dangerous since it was flooded with fast moving water. In fact, we weren't able to drive anywhere for two days. Both access roads to our town were inaccessible. One road washed away in a stream and the other became buried under numerous landslides. David got stuck in town and had to stay overnight. We worried that the south side of the property would literally be washed away in the creek. Fortunately, the tenants in the guesthouse near the property called me to let me know that everything was okay. Beside the issue of accessibility, our property did very well and the flood level of the creek never went beyond our fence. We had a lot of clay come in from the north side of the property as it made its way to the stream. We'll have to shovel a foot of mud this weekend.

Mud Everywhere in "Downtown" Val Verde

Access to the property was restricted because our street was flooded.

The property is across the creek. I took this at the beginning of the heavy rain.

An extra 18 inches of new soil at the corner of our property.

The mud is maybe 12 inches deep here.

Looking north where the mud flow came

We had a hard time getting to the property because it was a little sticky. All the roads looked like this.

Update; January 17

We went to the property this weekend to shovel some of the mud and soon realized that there was just too much mud to take away. David was crestfallen because his favorite part of the property was buried in two feet of mud. Our contractor is recommending that we use the clay that washed on the property to create berms around the property to protect it during future storms. We're planning to use the berms to deflect the runoff and direct it toward the street. We'll have to move it with skip loader and while we complete our landscaping... we're making lemonade out of lemons!