My wife (fiancee then) and I grew up in So Cal. Simi Valley. It was a nice place to grow up then, but expensive to live. We looked at Nor Cal due to the low rent and low property prices.

We came up to Honcut in November of 1985. I had just turned 23. With the nonstop rain day after day, I wondered WTF had I done moving here. I did not realise it was not a normal year.

Coming into February of 1986, I received a call notifying me that one of my friends from So Cal had passed away. Worse was the fact he had taken his own life. I was asked to be a pallbearer at his funeral.

The rain was bad and the roads were flooding badly. My wife (fiancee) and I spent the night at her cousin's house down in Yuba City. My flight to So Cal was scheduled for early the next morning.

We drove down to the Sacramento airport early that morning. I think my flight was scheduled for 6:30 AM.

Debi was then planning to head to work. She was a stylist in the JC Penney hair salon in the Peach Tree Mall in Linda-Marysville.

I flew down to Burbank airport. Somebody picked me up (I don't remember who).

Later that afternoon, I was at my parents' house watching the TV news. Suddenly, there was a breaking news report of a levee breach in Nor Cal.

I watched a helicopter shot of the Peach Tree Mall underwater. Where Debi was supposed to be at work.

I freaked.

Nothing I could do, being 500 miles away. No cell phones or internet then. No email, no text. Just old-school land lines. I called home, I called relatives, I called everyone I knew.

Nobody had seen her. I was losing my shit. I just kept watching that video of the mall underwater. I thought she was gone.

I completely lost it. My dad restrained me, as I was trying to RUN back to Nor Cal.

Finally, Debi called. She had decided to NOT go to work that day, due to the road conditions. She had spent most of the day just trying to get home. Finally made it by taking numerous roundabout routes.

A day from Hell for me, thanks to CA DWR failure.

I will never forget it. Damn them.