They Meant Well

Our storms this week have been making news. This the most rain we've seen since January '05 and that storm changed the path of the creek! I've been out to the creek twice daily for the last two days to check on the flow and shoot pictures.

When the clouds broke last evening and I drove down there, I was dismayed to see so many cars. I admit my disdain for folks who come out to the creek only when she's raging and in a foul mood. I prefer our regulars who love her when she's happy and calm or even sad and dry.

But I quickly realized this was no ordinary crowd. In addition to all the cars, there were news vans and beyond the dogleg in the road... at least a dozen fire trucks. As I parked, I saw a low flying fire chopper. This usually means a person is in the water.

After making my way to the levee, I found some of my regular hiking crowd and all were laughing. It seems a chopper spotted a tent, isolated on all sides by raging water and there were bicycles there so they thought people were stranded. As soon as they described the tent, I started laughing. Every hiker knows that tent. It's belonged to a local homeless guy called Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy left that tent at least three years ago. He even lived along one of our main trails back in the summer.

The parade of fire trucks leaving

But no one from the fire department asked any of us... no, they called out the whole battalion and spent a fortune on rescuing... an empty tent! Much ado about nothing...

As they all packed up to drive back into town, the sight that made me giggle the most was a fire truck pulling a jet ski! A jet ski??? In the Tujunga river??? For those not familiar with this area, the translation of Tujunga (Ta HUNG a) means loud boulders or clanging rocks. You couldn't get a jet ski down the river on a good day, much less when she's chocked full of soot, ash and fallen trees! What were they thinking???