Hi, Water from Fernley, Nevada

As many of you know we have a nephew who lives in Fernley. We got this e-mail from him today that was very informative about the recent flood event there.

Hello Everyone

Thanks for checking in. Caley and I are just fine, our neighborhood was OK, and most of the damage was at least a mile away. After waking to the sound of rescue helicopters, we called friends and watched the news to find out who was affected. Some of our friends were in the path of the water, and were evacuated around 5:30am. They had maybe six inches of water in the garage, but none in the house -- still very messy.

I did go into the flood zone with my Jeep to try and help. On the way, I helped unload sandbags, bivouacked houses, and ferried some people in and out of some of the least accessible areas. On one trip into the high water, I found a sheriff's Chevy truck swamped out and abandoned.....there were areas I could see where the water was up to the top of backyard fences (yikes!), but I know how deep I can safely traverse in my Jeep and didn't even try to reach the worst places. There were a couple of streets where rescuers were working in canoes and small motorboats.

Of course, the broken irrigation canal levee was the real cause of the flood (which at this time is being reported as having been undermined by gopher diggings), but the problem was compounded by unusually heavy rainfall in the preceding 24 hrs -- at least 1.5 inches during that period, which is about 25 percent of our annual average. The sandy soil in our region, which drains poorly at best, was absolutely saturated; when the water from the canal broke free and crossed some farm fields into residential areas, neither the soil nor the storm drain system were able to accommodate the additional influx. What could have been street flooding ended up as waist deep water in many homes.

Our community really came together to provide assistance, with people who were not immediately affected turning out by the hundreds to fill sandbags, to donate time, clothes and blankets at the high school (shelter), and people with capable vehicles working the flood zones to shuttle residents, belongings and sandbags. There were even a few people from a neighboring town who towed in tractors to help with cleanup.

We all know how the news media loves a good disaster, and from what I saw on CNN on Saturday morning it looked like we had Hurricane Katrina in the desert, but I think generally things were overstated. Most of those affected are now cleaning up and petitioning FEMA for assistance.

Safe on high ground,

Brian & Caley

We are all glad that they are fine.