...A dream I had Of a world all mad. Not a simple happy mad like me, Who am mad like an empty scene Of water and willow tree, Where the wind hath been;

…A dream I had Of a world all mad. Not a simple happy mad like me, Who am mad like an empty scene Of water and willow tree, Where the wind hath been; But that foul Satan-mad, Who rots in his own head, And counts the dead

–Walter de la Mare, “The Fool Rings His Bells”

We knew it was going to be bad when the tree hit the house. There’d been nearly foot of rain in the last week. The ground was so saturated that the first blast of wind the front in a train of storms uprooted the willow I’d planted twenty years ago, toppling the 30-foot-tall tree. Fortunately for us, being a golden-leaved member of the Salix family the tree, a favorite foraging spot for sapsuckers and woodpeckers that was just beginning to provide cooling late summer shade from the afternoon sun, made a willowy landing and didn’t crash through a window or dent the gutter. The willows fall was a prelude to a coming deluge, the latest in a series of storms that had raked across the Pacific Northwest in December, warm storms cycling up from the tropical Pacific. Climate change? Consider the fact that for most of December, the temperature here 40 miles north of the 45th parallel of latitude, has been 15 degrees above normal. Consider that it’s been so warm, the ski slopes on Mt. Hood at Timberline (6,000 feet) have yet to open, the latest date in more than a century. Even though Oregon escaped the worst of the flooding, all three rivers that converge here in Oregon City–the Willamette, Tualitan, and Clackamas–rose out of their banks, enveloping roads, fields, and homes. The forecast calls for rain in nine of the next 10 days. The climate has changed and will keep changing, faster than we can adapt, even if we try, which we aren’t…

Our fallen willow.

Willamette River flood from the Arch Bridge, Oregon City.

Willamette Falls, second second-largest falls by volume in the US, nearly inundated.

The 50-foot drop of Willamette Falls nearly flooded out.

Willamette Falls, pouring through the old power station.

Flood debris at the old Willamette Falls hydro plant, first in the Pacific Northwest.

Willamette rising up the riverwall at the old Oregon City and West Linn mills.

Floodwaters at the Willamette River locks.

Willamette floodwaters in Oregon City.

Arch Bridge over the flooded Willamette, looking toward West Linn.

Willamette floodwaters extend more than 1,000 feet from their normal course, in Oregon City.

Willamette flooding in Oregon City.

Willamette River flooding in Oregon City.

Clackamas River flooding below the Oregon City Bridge.

Clackamas River flooding in Oregon City.

Flooded pump house along the Willamette, Lake Oswego.

Oswego Creek flooding at George Rogers Park, Lake Oswego.

Flooded road along the Tualitan River.

Flooding of Abiquiu Creek, Willamette Valley.

Flooding of Pudding River, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Flooding of Molalla River, Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Oregon live oak on the cliff above flooded Willamette Falls, near the site where five Cayuse men were wrongly hanged in 1850.

The post Après le Déluge, un Autre Déluge: a Photo Essay appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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