August 2016

I witnessed my first flash flood decades ago in the Oman. Fortunately we were
camped far enough - just - above the floor of the wadi to be able to simply
watch and listen - with a sense of terror. The photo above is from Zion
National Park a couple of years ago - torrential rains, devastating flash
floods - and the clunking sound of boulders rumbling along the bed. Only a few
hours earlier we had been wandering through Antelope Canyon, beautiful but
infamous and
[deadly](http://archive.azcentral.com/travel/articles/20140208lone-
survivor-antelope-canyon-tragedy.html), with wary eyes on the gathering clouds
(see here
for an incredible video of the canyon filled by a flash flood in 2013 and
[here](http://www.fotocommunity.de/photo/flash-
flood-in-upper-antelope-canyon-sylwia-buch/22173049) for an image of a
relatively minor 2010 flood emerging from the canyon).

Flash floods can occur anywhere, any time - Texas is under a [flash flood watch](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-
deadly-flash-flood-concern-about-developments-impact-on-ellicott-
city/2016/08/14/e2867ff6-6253-11e6-8b27-bb8ba39497a2_story.html) as I write
this and [Maryland was devastated](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-
deadly-flash-flood-concern-about-developments-impact-on-ellicott-
city/2016/08/14/e2867ff6-6253-11e6-8b27-bb8ba39497a2_story.html) only a couple
of weeks ago. They can come with no warning whatsoever and yet their power is
indescribable.

Hence Dana Hunter’s recent post - “[Instant Peril: Flash Floods (and How to Survive Them)](http://the-
orbit.net/entequilaesverdad/2016/08/15/instant-peril-flash-floods-survive/).”
Wherever your travel plans will be taking you, but particularly if they
include arid lands, read this.

If you want a further taste of the staggering power of flash floods when they
turn into debris flows (which, more often than not, they do), watch these
videos (originally reported on “The Landslide Blog,”
thanks to Dave Petley).

([for details from the blog](http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2016/07/28/illgraben-
debris-flow-video/))
[](http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2016/07/28/illgraben-
debris-flow-video/)

([details and translation](http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2016/01/24/the-
greatest-ever-debris-flow-video-aconcagua/))

And never forget Isabelle Eberhardt,
the luminous writer (but troubled and enigmatic human being) who drowned in
the Sahara.

Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2016/08/index.html