Rain on the Siletz River
by Kathleen Ritzman
Newport, OR
Nighttime. Sleepless. Too many sounds outside my door to rest comfortably. I quietly shifted out of bed and padded down the hall to the new living room. When I opened the door, I could hear the chuckling hum of the Siletz River as it vibrated the soles of my feet. Shouldn’t someone turn the river off occasionally? I mused. Having come to Oregon from two drought-stricken states in 1996, I could not imagine people wasting so much luscious running water.
Only a week later I experienced my first Oregon January Rain Storm. I know it rained for 40 days and 40 nights—and I had no ark! The front yard of my flag lot became first a gooey mess and soon, a lake. There was a reservoir for the Siletz River: my property! The river became a liquid escalator creeping toward my home and carrying loot downstream: tree trunks, basket balls, children’s toys and even a 40-gallon glass aquarium. I anxiously worried about dead bodies.
Nervously I waited for the sun to return. I hid inside my home. In fact, one day, as I tried to drive my children to school, water seeped into my Nissan through the floorboards. I retreated to the second story of my house and called the school to explain that my children had been “flooded” home from school. Don’t worry, said the school secretary, that kind of thing happens around here all the time.
All the time?! I shuddered. Fortunately, we survived our first winter storm and eventually I became casual about our winter weather, and then learned to love it for the rain forest it feeds. Rain and the Siletz River: partners in the beauty that is Oregon.
