The Great Arizona Flood of 2014

Today, a monsoon hit the Phoenix area with vengeance.  For those not familiar with desert rains, they can be violent.  Not necessarily the rains themselves, but what they can bring.  Deserts have washes. Washes are essentially dry river beds.  Since they can be dry for 90% of the year, or even dry for years on end, humans tend to forget that they exist for a purpose: drainage.  Humans also tend to forget how deadly they can be.  Whole swaths of Interstate 10 were under water and consumed countless vehicles of brain dead drivers who thought that their Honda Civic could really make it through water up to their windows.

(photo from KNXV)

Entire neighborhoods were evacuated due to flooding and downed power lines.  But most people made the best of the new found (and short lived) lakes that sprung up throughout the valley.  Desert people LOVE water. Its rare to see so much of it here.  And the dry soil and high temperatures will make quick work of its disappearance. 

After a wet day at work, Mike and I took the dogs out to enjoy the lakes that formed in our own neighborhood walking path.  This is less water than we have seen in the past, but still enough to make our water dog happy.

The sun came out by 1PM, and by the time we made it out to play it was warm and wonderful.  Rommel and Elly thought we were the best parents ever. While she isn't a huge fan of swimming, she's an enormous fan of splashing and chasing in water.  And Rommel may as well have fins and gills.

Of course we took video again. Who can resist the joy of a dog in water?  (for those who watched my prior dog/water video, I apologize for the same soundtrack.  It's the only watery type music I have on my PC). 

Also, Blogger's mobile site does not like embedded videos.  For those using the mobile site, here is the link directly to the youtube video.