Storms now reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s

As I drove north on 101 today to the San Francisco airport I realized we are now in really dangerous multi-million dollar damage territory for Northern California reminscent of the 1980s and 1990s.

Here are some of the things I saw then: "Three feet of water coming off 8 foot high cliffs flooding as I drove by. Whole sides of mountains sloughing off and permanently changing the landscape ever after. Houses being washed off cliffs at the ocean. And a bridge on Hiway 1 towards Big Sur being picked up and moved 1 mile or more into the ocean never to be seen again.

Now imagine this: " This is a two lane bridge made of cement and steel and that's all along with re-bar made of iron for reinforcement. It's an impossible concept that trees broken loose upstream in the Carmel River which pushed the whole bridge out to sea.

Next to it, the Crossroads where STarbucks now is there was 6 to 8 inches deep in mud and the old movie theater now "torn down?"  "Where Safeway is now" had water 5 to 6 feet deep in in which was one reason why it eventually had to close and be either converted or torn down.

These are just some of the things I saw then which blew my mind at the time the flooding in 1983 and likely the bridge in 1995 I believe.

I also remember when I had a new girlfriend who is now my wife of 21 years now.  A friend was visiting and water suddenly came out of the wall. We could not believe it. I realized she had a flat roof and the roof was about to collapse from the water on the roof. So, since I have worked on ladders I knew not to wear shoes in the rain because your feet cannot grip the aluminum ladder so I went up barefoot on the ladder to the roof.  ON the roof leaves had clogged all the drains. So, in water 2 to 3 feet deep I waded out into the area where the leaves had collected and started throwing them off the roof. Water shot off the roof drains 7 feet out and slowly drained the roof as I kept preventing the leaves from clogging the drain again.

Memories of amazing amazing flooding and craziness. For me and my now wife I saved her house then before the roof collapsed and everything returned back to normal. The next day I bought chicken wire and built a wire cage to catch the leaves next year before they could clog the drain.