Can't Help Feeling Some Schadenfreude Regarding Flooding In Corrales

The TV people have also reported on flooding on Via Oreada on the south side of Corrales, but the flooding around Loma del Oro (and presumably Valle Vista), more to the north, has caught the most attention.

Can't help but feel some schadenfreude: this was all predictable. Hell, I predicted it, back when I was in high school.  They first started tinkering with dams, earthen berms, and the like, on these hills near Loma del Oro back around 1973, in order to control the destabilization of the landscape caused by the presence of Rio Rancho, but the act of creating a dam just creates new flooding opportunities, from water pouring off the steepened face of the dam, if nothing else. The harder they try to control the water flow, the more flooding they will cause. It's not a matter of levee maintenance. No amount of maintenance or money will ever suffice. The situation is fundamentally not controllable. Properties need to be condemned, and the sooner they recognize this situation (which has been obvious since 1973), the better.

LIVE. THOSE WHO LIVE AROUND HERE BLAME THE LEVEE FOR THE OVERWHELMING FLOODING. THEY SAY IT BROKE... OVERFLOWING THE ARROYO AND SENDING WATER RUSHING THROUGH STREETS. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS STOP SIGN RIGHT HERE -- LIFTED UP OUT OF ITS FOUNDATION -- AND KNOCKED DOWN IN THE RAIN AND WIND. AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE DAMAGE.

Blame the levee all you like: it's not the responsible party. Take a look in the mirror, maybe.

Joyce Daza's garage is filled up with about half a foot of mud. She says this is the 2nd time since she's lived here that flooding has damaged her home. This time it's worse because that levee we think broke and the levee is made of Earth, so, it brought all of the mud this time NOW FACING 100 THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF DAMAGE, DAZA IS TURNING TO NEIGHBORS FOR HELP... CLEARING DIRT FROM FRONT YARDS AND USING SANDBAGS TO PROTECT HOMES FROM THE NEXT MAJOR RAINFALL to shore up the houses for the next onslaught that's coming from the South. NEIGHBORS SAY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WAS HERE TODAY... ASSESSING THE DAMAGE AND TRYING TO FIND THE BEST WAY TO CLEAR STREETS. IN CORRALES LAURA THOREN KOAT ACTION 7 NEWS. ACTION 7 NEWS REACHED OUT TO THE CORRALES' MAYOR'S OFFICE TO FIND OUT WHY THE LEVEE WAS NOT MAINTAINED... OUR CALLS WERE NOT ANSWERED.

If they make the levee out of concrete, the water will eat through the sandy soil and undermine the concrete foundations. Concrete is not the solution. Nor is it weather modification.  Prayer won't help either.

Just get out! Condemn the land, and get out!