A New Perspective?

  Well, I stopped writing about Carlsbad, New Mexico briefly because I was planning a trip there and I wanted to write about it from a fresh perspective.
  Well, I did go through Carlsbad, but my ability to sightsee was severely limited by the flooding that was going on at the time. This flooding in a desert town was caused by the remnants of
Hurricane Odile, which hit the Baja Peninsula of Mexico with full force. This hurricane wreaked havoc on southern New Mexico, southern Arizona and large portions of northern Texas.
  When I was in Carlsbad, I arrived during a lull in the flooding, but there was still plenty of flooding around. I was able to see where waters had receded, however. This was indicated by mud and debris on the streets that proved that water had once flowed across the streets. When I arrived in Carlsbad on Sunday afternoon, September 21, the outside lanes of the major streets were completely flooded, forcing people to drive the inside lanes. This reduced the traffic to one lane each direction plus the turning lane and alot of traffic congestion ensued as a result. To turn onto side streets, drivers had to either drive in the flooded lanes to make the turn or make the turn from the inside lane and drive through the flooded area. Some intersections on secondary streets were completely flooded, probably most of them, but I did not see that many of them. The street in front of Walmart, on the south side of town, was completely flooded for a short distance.
  I have heard varying reports on the amount of rainfall that fell on the Carlsbad area, but it was at least 15 inches. This is in a town that averages about 11 inches for the year!
  The access road into Carlsbad Caverns National Park, State Highway 7, was closed due to 
alot of debris that had washed across the road and blocked it. One oil field worker was swept away and killed by floodwaters and there was a group of 42 oil field workers that were stranded by flood waters and had to be rescued by helicopter. I heard about two different areas in which this happened, one near Artesia, which is 36 miles north of Carlsbad and one near Whites City, which is the town that is adjacent to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. So I don't know if one of the stories was in error or if it happened in two different areas. I don't know if the 42 figure represents one area or both areas.
  So, I will have to resume my Carlsbad series with a stitched together series about my brief visit last a week and a half ago and my previous visits to this area.
 The lull in the flooding that I saw when I arrived was brief. It poured down rain all night and the already saturated ground could not hold it anymore, so more flooding ensued the next morning. When I went through Artesia late Sunday morning, there was little evidence of the recent flooding, unlike Carlsbad, but, as I saw on the news that night, Eagle Draw, a normally dry watercourse that bisects Artesia, was raging out of control. It happened that quickly!!