Prep sports: Deluge

A river of flooding flows by the Fashion Valley

shopping center following rains.

(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)



By Ed Piper, Jr.

As I pen (actually, keyboard) these words, the rain continues to pour down (started at 3:30 a.m. or so this morning--it's now 9:56 a.m.) at Canyon Crest Academy (CCA) off Highway 56, where I am substitute-teaching today, Fri., Jan. 20.

A thought I had soon after rising this morning was about potential postponements of high school games this afternoon and evening, in view of the forecasts of a second day of rain in a row, and powerful gusts of wind up to 50 miles per hour in the afternoon when the "core" of the storm comes through the county.

The expected flooding, with resultant closure of roads, and the high winds are two pretty good reasons for postponing needless travel, when games can easily be rescheduled for next week or later. (They could even be cancelled, if their outcomes don't influence league races.)

I'm seeing in my mind the water cascading down Friars Road last February, when we had the first of what was expected to be a heavy winter and spring of El Nino rains. (That didn't materialize.) I drove on Morena Blvd. near the Linda Vista trolley stop that afternoon, then up Friars. What I saw was gutters several feet wide, with water pooling into the intersection at Morena and Friars. The inclined road running past the University of San Diego was the scene of those streaming waters far too wide to be contained by the overwhelmed gutters.

I wouldn't want to see anyone injured today in trying to fight their way to a meaningless game that doesn't have to be played on this date at its scheduled time. I recall playoff contests being postponed by mutual consent of the two teams' coaches, due to high winds in East County and the Imperial Valley. That's just wise decision-making by adult leaders.

Here's to continued safe, healthy competition for our young people, and cautious, unharried travel by everyone else. Is that trip to do an errand really necessary?--or in view of the chance a large branch could come swinging down from a tree in the wind into the path of the car my grandchildren are riding in, would it be wiser to hold off?