Stormy Weather
On Thanksgiving we hosted Toto and Pascale to a dinner of salmon and calamari. While grilling dinner it started to rain. About 3 AM the lightning started. A huge lightning storm. The sky was lit up all night into today. And the rain! It pounded to the point where the roof started leaking. We woke about 5:30 with water drops on our faces. The road below Verdetecnica was a river. The photo's above show it after all the drainage had pretty much stopped. But the damage was done. Just down from here a car went off the side of the road after driving into the torrent.
A little after noon the rain, hail and lightning finally stopped and the sun came out. In the photos you see an olive grove down below us. Notice how it looks like the trees are planted in gravel. Well, they aren't. Toto pointed out the fact that there was no soil visible. All that gravel came from a field and small stream to the right on the photo. The rain swept the field clear and deposited all the gravel in the grove and on a road just above it. In the second shot you can see some people standing by the side of their road. It's washed out and covered by gravel from the field.
Toto came into the apartment to see where the roof leaks were coming from. He told us that this was a 10-year storm. They only happen that often, and that's often enough. The storm lasted for about 16 hours over-all. We drove down the road to the store for some needed supplies. There were rocks everywhere, many the size of footballs, and road hazard signs on the side if the road at the larger collections. When I went with Toto to checkout a neighbor's wall that had been undermined by a small torrent he asked if we had gone into town today. When I said no, he said good. The city is on a fairly steep gradient and it sounded like it was hit hard by the water coming off Mt. Kronio, where we are staying. A car was actually washed into the bay by the water flooding through town.
The folks from England that purchased Casa Luchese from Toto a few years ago were trapped on their property. The land is on the back side of Mt. Kronio about 3 km from here. There's a small bridge over a stream that washed out when the stream became a small river. I'm not sure how long it will take till they can get across. They own a Land Rover Discovery model so once the water subisdes they may be able to get across.
Needless to say, our expectations of going out today were shot. The sun's due out tomorrow and we'll head out to do something before packing to head to Calabria to see our other friends, the Tucci family in Marzi.
Ciao for now.