This Saturday, a severe thunderstorm in the Eastern Sierras--7.6 inches of rain in an area that usually sees about 5 inches total a year--caused flash flooding and mudslides along Oak Creek, just north of Independence, California. Dozens of homes were damaged, and about 25 destroyed altogether. Thankfully, no one was injured.
The historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery was inundated with mud, killing all the fish and destroying many of the employee residences on the site. Fortunately, the main hatchery building, which is a local landmark, was spared. The mudslide was undoubtedly exacerbated by a massive wildfire that burned all along the same creek last year and destroyed some residences. The folks in the Eastern Sierras have had a tough year.
KSRW, a local television and radio station, has some coverage from Sunday and an update on its website. The event has also made the national news.
Please consider donating some money to help all the families who have been displaced. You can send a check to: Independence Civic Club, Attn: Flood Relief Fund, P.O. Box 482, Independence, CA 93526.
The Owens Valley is an incredibly beautiful part of the country. I no longer live there, but I miss it a great deal. Many, many, movies, especially Westerns, have been shot in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, using the High Sierras as a backdrop. Some of these include: Gunga Din, Bad Day at Black Rock, several Randolph Scott Westerns, and more recently, Kalifornia. The Lone Pine Film Festival showcases these films every year.
The L.A. Aquaduct, which runs through the length of the valley, supplies about half of the water for Los Angeles.
The valley was also home to one of the more shameful episodes in our recent history, the Manzanar War Relocation Center, where a large number of Japanese were interned. The recently completed museum on its site is one of the few things the U.S. government has done in the past eight years that we can all be proud of. It's a beautifully designed exhibition space, and the stories it tells pull no punches.