Kathie, what year was that? I
live about an hour's drive from Hollister and I know that country fairly
well. If it was flooding in Hollister, it must have been flooding where I
live.
I was in a flood once when I lived in San Jose. My friend in
Holister (Maryben you know her it was Carla Setzer)..
Anyway, the levi broke and water decided to flow right thru her driveway
into her pastures. We got a call at 7am to go help. I pulled my
oldest daughter out of school to help.
We were told the water was only knee deep, but by the time we got there
we were more than waist high and we saw my friend trying to get the horses
out. She lives off 152. CHP was kind enough to cover that highway
and her street which intersected.
We had all the trailers there as the water was only a few inches
there. As we walked down towards her property about 1/2 mile I couldn't
believe what I saw! We saw most of the horses in the pasture by the
gate. And they were very glad to see us. We had to make sure the
hot wires were off too. We waded to the tack room to get halters.
As we approached the horses they all came forward towards us. We got
inside and calmly put their halters on. They were amazingly calm; and it
almost seemed they knew we were there to get them out. Nobody fought or
got unruly or paniked. The tricky part was opening the gate with the
current. You could feel things brushing and banging onto your legs and
we didn't dare guess what they were.
We got the horses out and tried to lead them thru the driveway to the
main road and it was hard because we were going against the current.
Almost knocked us off our feet a few times. Fortunately my friend
worked as a vet tech and the vet closed his practice that day to come and
help. He brought trailers and staff. Plus, he was 6'7 and we
needed his height. We basically leapfrogged the horses to him and a few
others and we all clung to the cyclone fence. Then when we got the
horses close to the road they all suddenly "leaped" forward as a herd and go
to the road. A few got loose but stayed with the others so we could grab
them.
At the beginning my friend didn't know where to take them, but when the
traffic had been stopped there was a nice gal that lived up the road and was
above the levi with no flooding. She offered my friend her pasture and a
barn as long as she needed. She had been watching us try to get them
out.
My friend ended up in an ambulance with hypothermia.
The vet was worried about a goat we couldn't get, but we figured he'd be
okay cause he climbed up on a huge stack of hay and was okay.
The last horse we had to get out was one of her stallions. Her
boyfriend and sister had him (he was in a stall and paddock) but he got scared
and they dropped the lead rope. He started heading for the pasture which
was getting deeper by the minute (water was not up to our chests). We
panicked, but he saw his food bowl float by and decided to grab a bit (silly
horse) and her boyfriend was able to get back to him and finally lead him out
holding onto the fence.
After we got all of them out, the fence collapsed and all the trailers
and vehicles started floating away towards the pasture!!!! I've never
seen things that heavy and large get carried away by water! It was
"surreal".
Anyway, her sister and I tried to get out the driveway but couldn't go
farther with out holding on to something. So we had to be
rescued!! Search and rescue!
You know, we were so focused on the animals we didn't even realize how
dangerous that it was.
Three weeks later, all is well, but some of us got horrible rashes all up
and down our legs, and tons of bruises! But those animals cooperated and
all ended well!
I hope all of you in the mid-west dealing with this terrible weather are
okay. In a small way I know what you are dealing with.
