RFTP 3 F "The Flood"

In November and December of 1996, we had huge amounts of snow fall in the valley. The snow level was down to about 3500 ft (valley floor, about 4500 ft). There was so much snow, in fact, that the annual Bracebridge Dinner was closed for a few nights because people couldn't get into the park.

On New Year's Eve Day, a warm rain began to fall. We all thought nothing of it as we had seen it rain, then snow before. But, the snow never came. It continued to rain right through all of the next day.

By the second, the Merced River had started to rise fairly significantly. On the third, Curry Village (where I lived and worked) was effectively cut off from the rest of the valley. As the river now encircled this high spot.

I have no first hand knowledge of how things went in the other villages, but in Curry things wern't too bad. Between myself and two other managers, we had keys to all of the facilities. We could feed and care for the trapped employees and guests for a few days without problems.

By the sixth, we had no drinkable water and our food supply was dangerously low, though everyone was warm and dry. We ended up having the Army National Guard deliver to us cases of water and food via Chinook helicopter.

On the seventh, the water receded enough to get the guests out of the park. And by the tenth, the majority of us employees were gone as well. (The main sewer line ruptured during the flood).

Which didn't really matter to my friends and I. We had a group of about fifty in Joshua Tree National Monument for climbing and drinking. Five weeks of climbing.