by Judy Eron

The last issue of Cenizo , spring 2023 , included a story I wrote about what I then called torrential rains that preceded our return to the desert from Washington state in September . I told of how the water and mud flowed into our kitchen due to engineering flaws that had not been corrected , nor even noticed , during the drought of these several past years . I cautioned us to correct the flaws , which we did .

This past winter we had a chance to observe how well our repairs were doing , because it rained once and then we had a beautiful ice storm that coated every twig , every pad of every prickly pear , giving us moisture , we were happy to get . Our engineering repairs held , and we could just revel in the desert getting fed , getting green .

And then a few weeks ago , as we were packing to leave once again for Washington state , the skies opened up--torrential rains that made the September torrential rains look like a strong drizzle . And not just rain--hail , winds , and more hail .

As the storm began on May 13th , Charlie decided our cars should get washed by the rain . He is a practical man . He went out and moved the cars from under the carport . The rain started coming down more heavily . The wind picked up . I sat on our couch and urged our puppy to stay calm . I urged myself to stay calm . The rain came crashing down harder and harder . Then the hail started , pea size , then thumbnail-sized . Charlie reassessed the car wash decision and ran out into the rain and hail to move the cars back under the carport . He got knocked in the head with a thumbnail hail and decided

he needed a hard hat , which he ran to get from the shed . I stayed inside , feeling thrilled at first , then less thrilled and more scared . You can ' t watch such a storm and not get at least a little scared . But it ' s an adventure , too , I told myself , sitting there , feeling the winds shake the house , hearing the crashing thunder . I soothed myself by imagining writing the sequel to my story that had just appeared in the Cenizo .

And then all descriptive adjectives abandoned me , as suddenly the kitchen began to fill with water . That same old engineering flaw we were sure had been conquered , had obviously not been conquered . I grabbed a few sponges from under the sink and a pot off the stove and began soaking up the river that was running into our kitchen from under the door to the patio . Sponges--what a joke-- the water kept getting deeper by the minute . I grabbed a plastic scoop and began frantically scooping the water into the pot , emptying each pot down the kitchen sink drain . Just under a gallon each time , pot after pot . Essentially , I was bailing out a seriously leaking boat .

Charlie rushed in shivering , his clothes soaking wet and muddy , and stripped right there in the kitchen while I continued to bail and bail . At some point I could tell that less water was entering under the door , and I realized that the rain must be slackening . Hallelujah . Charlie got the mop and a bucket of clean water , and I switched from bailing to washing the muddy floor .

Charlie dressed again in dry clothes and went out to examine what had happened to make such a

river . Turned out that the diversions he had created in September were simply not deep enough . More importantly the PVC pipe with holes , a sort of French drain that was supposed to drain the patio , had gotten clogged on both ends ; instead of draining , it had actually become a collection system that was overflowing . He removed the PVC and deepened the ditch it had been in , making sure it would direct the water downhill .

Our road got pretty torn up from that storm , and from the many days of rain and hailstorms that followed . Between a couple of the storms , we did manage to leave for the northwest , so we ' ve not been there to continue assessing our repairs . Our neighbors are keeping us posted and thus far say our engineering upgrades are keeping the rains from entering the kitchen again . We can hope .

And I do hope to not write any sequel to this sequel . �