On 05-12-09, MIMI GALLANDT said to JOE BRUCHIS:


JB>>> No weirder than you Cal-ee-for-nee-ans. :-)


RW>> They build houses on stilts, sitting on the side of hills
RW>> and when it rains, they come tumbling down, like stones
RW>> to splash in the flooded streams called el camino, swills
RW>> which is a real hardship on rain soaked Callies bones.


JB> ..and when it's not flooding, everything's on fire! :-)


MG>Funny thing about fires in California, with the exception of San Diego
MG>county fires tend to hit $1,000,000 + houses. One would think that if a
MG>person was smart enough to get the kind of money it takes to buy one of
MG>those they'd be smart enough to not rebuild on the same land where their
MG>house burned or slid down a hillside. If one thought that one would be
MG>wrong; they build back in the same place!


Thats nothin'!


Many years ago, back in the sixties or so.....people with enough smarts to
retire from business with a million dollars or more and move out here to
sunny, southern California....didn't have any more brains than to let a
developer and real estate company talk them into paying hundreds of thousands
for a house and property located on the *San Diego River bed*!


It had been dry for many decades. But any bright 12 year school kid will tell
you....once it has been a *River bed*....someday, its gonna get water in it!


Maby not in three, or thirty, or three hundred! But SOMEDAY....its gonna have
water in it again!


So...along comes 1977 and 1978.....the two worst years for rain in the San
Diego area for many decades!


And what do you suppose happened to homes in Mission Valley and surrounding
areas of the San Diego River bed?


A few just floated right away! And the vast majority of them were ruined by
heavy water damage. We're talkin' like.....people looking out the windows of
their upstairs, and the water is just maybe six or eight feet below!


Nice new Mercedes and BMW' parked in the garages.....under water! Ruined!


Mission Valley was pretty much flooded out a couple of times in that time
frame.


Now....the San Diego city and East County area have a water-shed aquaduct
system that won't quit! But.....back then? They were relying on the gutters
along the streets and freeways to drain the runoff.


---
*Durango b301 #PE*