raining so much even Seattle is scared

So, Seattle (and Washington State as a whole) are under a state of emergency for flooding. Four people have died, so yes, that's bad. But... and I realize I'm betraying my semi-country-girl roots when I say this... Western Washington has been flooded every year that I remember. The beautiful hills and valleys I grew up in, with the nice farm land and all? Were made primarily by rivers, folks. When I was in high school, the local ROTC got called out pretty much every year to help sand-bag downtown Issaquah. Power outages were pretty much an annual thing, if not more than that. They got less frequent as the area got more developed, but our power was out 2 weeks when I was in elementary school, and my mom's cousin, living just across the valley from where I grew up, had the same thing happen last year.

It's times like this I really do realize that I kinda grew up in the sticks. Well, that and that I now know that not everybody had friends whose parents found a black bear in their front yard. Things like that.

Oh, and the story about the guy who died by being hit by a tree while he was out trying to cut another tree that'd already fallen (presumably on his house)? My dad totally did that during a storm when I was a kid. He came in when my mom yelled at him, but... there's my dad, up on the roof in the middle of a windstorm with his chainsaw. *Shakes head*

Anyway, come on, Seattle. Buck up. Otherwise we're going to be mocked for the one thing the world knows us for other than Starbucks and Microsoft. :P

This entry has now been edited to assure the world that I don't mean to mock people who are having a hard time because of this. Flooding sucks. I'm just sort of... bemused by the fact that our state isn't prepared for this, of all things. I mean... Seattle. That is all.

Stay dry out there, folks.