It was a great place to hunt fish and relax. You could see the stars at night without city lights interfering. There was no traffic crowds police or fire sirens. We lived there through the summer fall and winter of 1986. And the winter and early spring of 1987.
We had plenty of snow that winter and the creek was frozen almost to the bottom. We saw the temperature go to fifty below when even our dogs wouldn't go out.
It was a long cold snowy winter with over five and one half feet on the ground. We prayed for a slow melt so the creek would not rise to much.
Well we got pretty much what we prayed for a nice slow melt. On March twenty second the ice on the creek broke up. It was something to see chunks of ice as big as boxcars floating down the creek. The creek went up about ten feet and cut our access road but went back down the next day. (When this happens Lost Valley becomes an island.)
On April fourth 1987 we woke up to a light rain. About four pm. I noticed that the creek had risen about two feet. That should not have happened with only a light rain. A few minutes later the Sheriff stopped by and told us that it was raining very hard at the Gilboa reservoir and the road would probably be cut again. But he didn't expect a problem for us.
By six that night the road had been cut. By eight the water was only a foot below the top of the bank. We decided to move to a house on a little higher ground. (Luckily I had the key) The Sheriff called and asked if I could shut the power off to the nine cabins in the valley. As I went from cabin to cabin I saw that the water was over the bank in some places.
The cabin we went to was about four feet off the ground. By midnight the water was coming up through the floor. They tried to get us out by boat once but the current was just to strong. By two in the morning the water in the cabin was over my belt buckle. The phone still worked and the Sheriff called to say that when daylight came they would try with a helicopter. They came with the chopper about eight am but the tree cover was to dense.
About one pm. they finally were able to come
after
us with a boat, They anchored the boat to our car which was
completely under water. We had to come out a bedroom window
to get to the boat. In order to avoid the main current we
had to go through the trees. We proceeded about half a mile
before we were able to turn toward land. It looked like we
might make it.
Unfortunately our dogs
didn't.
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