Deluge In The Desert

Welcome to FOB Mud-Flood…

It rained hard for over 24 straight hours here at the FOB and more is expected, turning Shindand and its surrounding areas into either a mud bog, lake or shallow to deep raging river, depending upon your proximity (or luck).  These pictures were taken after about 12 hours of the heavy rains and it definitely got worse before getting better.  They closed the road linking the west to east side (I drove around the orange cones anyway last night to get to the chapel for praise team practice) because it had disappeared completely in places, was under water in others and there were vehicles stuck here and there.  I didn’t have any real issues but then I’m a puddle jumper from way back.

And I don’t know about the other hummers and MRAPs out there, but in our USACE hummers?  When it’s raining outside, it’s raining inside.  And by the way, canvas leaks.

The compound for the “Hilton” also houses the Fire Department, and I know they were flooded.  How?  As we drove by the double-high hesko walls a large plume of muddy water was shooting in a continuous and graceful high arc over the wall from inside to out.  The pumps ran for a looong time.

And the picture below (everything that is light-colored in the photo is water, except the sky)?  Don’t ask me why this guy was, a) out in a downpour on his motorcycle; b) out in a downpour on his motorcycle in the mud and rivers outside the wire where there is no road; c) waiting for?; d) carrying large yellow bags of?…  The questions could continue for quite some time, but we’ll leave it almost as fast as we left him and went on our way.

Now, I do know what the excavator above was doing.  It belongs to a contractor whose housing compound is a few hundred meters in front of it.  The digging machine was doing its best beaver impression, building a long low dam to direct the water away from the interior of their compound.

The photo below is our base’s solid waste management system.  Yes, it’s a burn pit.  A rather soggy one.  I was surprised to see it was actually still ‘warm’.  (And yes, there is an actual incinerator under construction for the FOB.)

The last photo was towards the end of our perimeter loop exploration and we were looking for the road to cut back over to our compound.  This is it.  And dear SSGT Larry who was riding shotgun, urging me to go ahead and dive/drive on in.  Aaahhh, no.  Not even I would try that long of a stretch of a dirt road under who knows how much flood water.  Nope.  Nada.  Ain’t happenin’.

And the rains they just keep a fallin’…  Which means not much is landing in the way of aircraft either, which means no mail for days (weeks?) and no supplies and no…

I hear Bagram has snow on the ground.  Is that fair?