Patty's Weblog

Wednesday evening (Sept. 11) it begins raining. Steady and hard, but not bucketing down. Sometime around midnight John gets up and checks the rain. The backyard is full of water, enough so that it backs up to the house and finds a couple pipe-holes into the basement. He sets up a sump pump in the backyard, and collects dripping water in the basement. At the worst, he was carrying a 5 gallon bucket up from the basement every 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, my iPhone keeps giving alerts from the CU Boulder. A flood alert is in effect for the Boulder campus, with everyone advised to seek higher ground. Campus is closed for the day by about 4 a.m.

We are not too worried, since we are not right next to a river and the basement flooding is manageable.

About 4:30 a.m., I hear the neighbor's truck start up. Uh oh, the Little Thompson could be flooding. I watch as he drives to the river and comes right back. The river must have flooded the road. Then he goes out towards the main road. I watch and sigh in relief as he crosses the area over the culvert that could flood, the one between us and the mailboxes.

As soon as it is light, I walk down to the Little Thompson. You cannot believe how huge it was. The road is washed out, cutting off the fifty or so homes back there.

We still have power and phones Thursday morning. The news for Boulder looks bad. But Lyons is worse. The rivers that run through town (the St. Vrains) have breached their banks and all of the bridges in town.

Residents of our immediate area gather informally at various informal points and news is transferred. We learn that the St. Vrain has flooded the highway at the Rainbow Bridge, the bridge from Blue Mtn Road (hwy 71) to the Apple Valley Road. John and I drive down about noon, and I posted photos on my blog.

It rains all day Thursday. We see no helicopters or rescue vehicles. By 3 p.m. on Thursday we lose power, and by 8 p.m. we lose our landline (and DSL, of course). There has never been cell phone service in the valley, so we are totally cut off from easy communication with the rest of the world. Our community meetings are a sanity saver.

We watch the Little Thompson on Thursday. Huge trees, stripped of limbs, float down the river like twigs. A semi-trailer is stuck for awhile against the trees below the bridge. Propane tanks, barrels, debris are all swept down our little river. It's simply incredible. I took photos and movies and will upload when I get a chance.

We have a neighbor with excavation equipment and others with equipment are also trapped in our little area and also the isolated area across the Little Thompson. They begin re-routing the Little Thompson back under the bridge, a project that takes until late Monday afternoon to complete.

On Friday, 3 p.m., our community meets formally at the mailboxes. This becomes our daily routine: community meetings at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to share news and critical resources. Volunteer fire department guys live on both sides of the Little Thompson and are in radio communication with each other and the authorities in Lyons; this news is communicated at the meetings.

Friday we settle in to camping at our house. We have a generator - it is old but it works. Our house is all-electric (we do not have propane). We can plug in about 4 big extension cords at a time, enough to keep the kitchen refrigerator and the basement freezer chilled, run the microwave or toaster oven, a light or two, charge my laptop and phone and devices, and power the TV. But we run the generator sparingly, because it's noisy and we don't have to have constant power. It's warm enough, so we don't have to heat the house. I am a packrat, and figure that I have enough food to last us at least 3 weeks.

For water, we cannot move water out of our well/cisterns (takes electricity), but we do have 55 gallon drums of drinking water in the basement, and an above-ground swimming pool full of water. We have the gas grill and a camping stove. We bucket water to the toilets, and heat water on the camping stove for bucket showers. They feel wonderful!

Most homes in our area are about like ours. We live in a big valley with most homes sitting on 10-35 acres. Our homes are self-sufficient, and we are used to power outages. Many have generators, we all rely on our individual septic systems rather than a public sewer system. None of us are on city water, so we are used to finding water by alternative sources.

We are camping, but camping with use of the shelter and supplies in our own home.

Friday skies cleared enough for helicopters to come to the valley. First, Red Cross and National Guard. Once an expensive private helicopter flew over, we think it was probably governor Hickenlooper.

We learn that hwy 36 to Lyons is destroyed at the Stone Mtn hotel. Up towards Estes, it's destroyed at the Longmont Dam road. At the end of Apple Valley, the bridge is under water, but the structure of the bridge has held. That is our hope.

On Saturday, FEMA trucks come into the valley. They come over the quarry road. Now, John and I have never even been up there. But there is a road up the mountain that the sandstone quarry trucks use to come down to our valley, and there is also a road from the quarry out through Stone Canyon to Lyons. This is the access they use today, as the Apple Valley bridge road is "fragile". We are offered evacuation, but decide to stay. The government guy who came to our house was very friendly and quite frankly, I think he was glad that we were totally self-sufficient: one less family that they had to help.

By Sunday, the road/bridge through Apple Valley to Lyons and then on to Longmont is passable. Our community is allowed to use 2-3 trucks a day to make a run out for essentials. Gas for the generator is our essential need. At community meetings, people bring eggs and any other extras that they have. Everyone speaks up their needs: hay for horses, bread, milk, water, etc. Lots of people back here have freezers full of game meat or beef. A board lists local people who are medical workers and vets, as well as where to find a phone or cell service. Josh Buster, who runs the quarry, tells us that we can go up the quarry road and use the wi fi and phone access up there. There is also a spring for drinking water.

Today (Sunday), if we really wanted or needed to, we could drive our car out through the Apple Valley road. But we could not come home.

We stay in our community. It's a good feeling, knowing that we are a community.

Here is the sad damage.

Tom's house, the original X Bar Seven homestead house (we still always call it "Brownings"), flooded Thursday night. Half of the house is gone, and he and his partner were stranded on an island formed by the Little Thompson. He signaled us for a helicopter on Friday morning; his partner has medical issues and needs to get out.

Four or five other homes further down the Little Thompson were destroyed. At a community meeting, I talked with a woman I know from pilates: her home was destroyed. The original Buster home was flooded.

Shelley's Cottages are gone. Probably other cottages and homes up the way towards Estes are gone too.

The town of Lyons is completely evacuated, except for a few hardy people who are willing to live without city services (they have to boil drinking water, and have no flushing toilets). The flood damaged or destroyed all of the Lyons homes that were on the rivers. The bridge at the junction of hwy 36 and hwy 66 is probably destroyed. For a time on Thursday/Friday, all roads out of Lyons were under 4 feet of water. No help got in on Thursday at all. The road between the U Pump It and the Black Bear flooded and is partly destroyed. Both bridges to the high school are destroyed. The St. Vrain Market had a foot of water, although the Steamboat Mtn store and the Stone Cup area survived with just some water damage. The new homes by the high school were isolated for several days, no one could get to them because of the flooding rivers. There were other isolated areas; we shall learn all of the stories later. Lyons (the town) was evacuated by big trucks that could get through 4 feet of water and also by helicopter.

It will take 30 days, minimum, for Lyons to have all services restored. Both schools are closed, obviously.

Pinewood Springs was cut off from everything. It took until Monday for the FEMA helicopters to airlift residents out.

All road access (except Trail Ridge) to Estes Park has been destroyed.

Update, 11:00 a.m. Tuesday. Just back from a community meeting. For the first time, people from across the river can attend.

FEMA has designated our area "uninhabitable". Well that's quite plainly incorrect! But since that is our status, we still cannot get resident passes to egress out through Lyons. They want as little traffic as possible to go that way, because each time a car passes, they have to shut down road work. Our community is sending volunteers to man a check-point at the Rainbow Bridge to prevent anyone without dire need from trying to drive out and disrupt the reconstruction process. We hope that within several days, the road will be fixed enough to allow us to go out and in with resident passes. What is working to our benefit is that the highway from Lyons to Estes Park - the road we use to get anywhere - is a major route, so the government is putting tons of resources to work on repairing the infrastructure of our roads and of Lyons.

That's it, to date!

Movie of Little Thompson, September 12, 2013.



Photo taken from our upstairs balcony about dusk on September 12. Right in the middle of the swollen river you can see the trailer of a semi truck lodged in some trees. The next morning, it was gone . . . somewhere downriver.



Movie of Little Thompson, September 13, 2013.



Camping out on our deck.




Next Lyons flood entry

First Lyons flood entry

September 12, 2013. We have lived here 32 years and never seen a flood like this one.

We can drive out county road 71 to highway 36, to the Rainbow Bridge over the St. Vrain river. This is the view looking up the canyon, towards Estes Park:



That's the road, under water. No one is going 45 MPH up there today, or for several days hence. Here's a photo from the bridge:



Now, this photo looks the other way, towards Lyons, where the Stone Mountain motel is:



I guess you can see that we can't go that way either. Not much road left! We know from the news that Lyons is flooded, which means that we cannot even get to Lyons.

We are stranded!

I shot these two photos this morning. Just a little ways past our house, the Little Thompson River crosses the road. Yesterday the river was a trickle. Today, here it is:





This was caused by the breaching of the Big Elk dam.

And the forecast? Rain tonight.


Next Lyons flood entry

We lunched in Sirince, a beautiful, rustic village a short drive from Ephesus. The bus dropped us off to walk up the narrow, steep, stone-paved streets to the restaurant.



The view looked out over hills and old houses.



Village street:



We arrive at the restaurant. This chef is just about to open the wood-fired outdoor oven, and is moving quickly (that's why he is blurry) to avoid the heat:



Boy, I'd love an oven like this. Here, he has opened the door, showing the flatbreads baking:



These will be part of our lunch!

Our nice shady tables are already set and our meze is waiting for us. The owners of this vegetarian restaurant grow all of their own produce. Such bright colors!



The meze you see on the table include a home-made pickled onion-tomato mixture, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemons in olive oil (fresh olive oil!), olives, stuffed grape leaves, and shredded carrots. Such bright flavors!





The meal was served with their own wine from local grapes. Unique, good, fresh. The main dish was a pastry called a borek. It was a big round circle of a phyllo-type dough filled with spinach and feta cheese, and then folded into quarters and baked. Dessert was watermelon. We feel so healthy! The food was amazing, bringing our Turkish food experience to yet a higher level.

On the way back to the bus, we stopped at a wine shop and had a lively talk with the propietor, and bought a bottle to take with us. Excellent wine.

We drove back through Selcuk and then on to our hotel in Izmir. I snapped some photos from the bus. First, the fort on the hill above Selcuk:



Across this bright green field is a stork's nest on a tower.



Oddly shaped ruins:



A very old church in Selcuk:



Selcuk is home to more than one nest of storks. The nest in the photo below is right in the center of the town:



Here is another stork in its nest. I touched up the photo a bit so you can see the open-beaked stork a little better:



Planted fields:



Olive trees:



A taksi:



This is our second and last night in the Swissotel Grand Efes. Tomorrow we will travel to Gocek, on the Aegean, and board our gulet. What's a gulet? We don't really know exactly, yet! About all we know is that it is a boat we will live on for the next 4 days and nights.

We have the late afternoon and evening free to explore on our own. John wants to find some insect repellant and allergy medication, and we will probably want something to eat (and drink). Before we disbanded for the evening, Ali told us how to find stores and restaurants in the area. John and I rest awhile, and swim, then head out to look around Ismir. First, though, we look down at the street and note a lot of car and pedestrian traffic, including chanting protesters with banners:



So, the Turkish protests are in this city too. The crowds are not as large in Izmir, and they are not "occupying", just gathering for the evening.

The store we are looking for is across that busy street in the photo above. We quickly find out that pedestrians have to be careful in Ismir, since cars don't always want to stop for you. We found the store pretty easily. Then, we realized something: All the merchandise is labeled in Turkish!

Oh my, this is going to be harder than we thought. The store is kind of like a Walgreens here in the states: medications, flip flops, chips, snacks, sodas, clothing, sunglasses, toys - lots of miscellaneous items. There was also beer, wine, and liquor. We kept wandering from aisle to aisle, laughing at ourselves for forgetting that labels would be in another language. By looking at pictures on the labels and sounding out the Turkish, we were able to find insect repellant. But no sudafed; we found out later that sudafed is not sold over the counter in Turkey.

Our shopping bag in hand, we head for the waterfront.

The police are out in force here in Izmir (unlike in Istanbul, where the police were not visible). We decide to stay out of the crowd of protestors, who are congregating on the route to the row of fancy restaurants. We aren't very hungry, anyway, so we go to find a table at one of the small, local eateries, right on the bay.

Few of the proprietors of these small eateries speak English, but we did manage to get our Efes beers and some nuts. We people-watched for quite a while. Some locals are smoking big water pipes of Turkish tobacco. The protesters make some noise, but it seems pretty tame. Eventually we leave to go back to the little market for more munchies, and head back to our ultra modern hotel room for a quiet remainder of the evening.

I checked online news reports to find out what was happening with our friendly protesters in Taksim Square. On June 11, the protests there stepped up a notch, and the Turkish riot police moved back into Taksim Square. We hope the situation doesn't escalate.

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What is Ephesus? It's the site of a large city and cultural complex built by Romans in the first century BC. At one time, 250,000 people lived in Ephesus. Compared to Troy, Pergamum, and the Asclepieum, Ephesus is huge - both in area and the massiveness of the ruins. It is also quite popular with tourists, and more so at the time we visited because many of the cruise ships opted to visit Ephesus instead of Istanbul because of the Taksim Square protests. (Good online references: Ephesus, Wikipedia, and Bible Places.)

The ancient city is south of our hotel in Izmir, on the western coast of Turkey, near the town of Selcuk. We left our hotel early so as to arrive when it opened at 10 am - Ali knew it was best to see Ephesus as early as possible, before it got hot. (It was still hot.)

Like all of Turkey, Ephesus was conquered and lost by different ruling groups over the centuries; the following paragraph is my own abbreviated timeline.

Ephesus was founded by Ionian Greeks in the 10th century BC. Later it was controlled sequentially by the Cimmerians, various tyrants, the Lydians, the Persians, the Ionians (again), and in the 5th century BC, the Persians (again). Then, in 334 BC, Alexander the Great liberated Ephesus. By the 1st century BC, Ephesus was under firm Roman control. After Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, Ephesus entered a period of prosperity and grew to a population of 250,000, making it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean area. The city was damaged by the Goths in 263 AD. Constantine I, who reigned from 306-337 AD, rebuilt the city. From 395-1308 AD, Ephesus was part of the Byzantine Empire (Greek-speaking Roman Empire). The Turks of the Ottoman Empire controlled the city from the fourteenth century until the establishment of modern Turkey in the twentieth century.

We enter the site in a bustle of tourists and pass water closets and souvenir stands. John and I bought Turkey hats to protect our heads. Then we follow the path into Ephesus. Another tour group gathers under a shady tree; all we see at first are more stone-sized ruins. Not too impressive.



Then we do come to an impressive structure: the Bath of Varius, dating from the second century.



A pile of pipes used to carry hot air to heat the buildings:



Next to the Bath of Varius is the Basilica. It was used for commercial business and courts of law. Statues of Augustus and his wife used to be in the Basilica, but they are now in the Ephesus Museum (in Selcuk, Turkey). The Basilica was destroyed in an earthquake in the fourth century. I liked the figures of the bulls on top of the big stones.





The Odeon, below, is a small theater constructed in the second century. It was used for meetings of the senate and also as a concert hall for performances. Its capacity was 1500 people; it used to be enclosed with a roof.



Aren't all the people taking pictures fun?

An archway after the Odeon:



Another Turkey cat:



Temenos: remains of two temples erected in the first century in honor of Julius Caesar and Rome.



Next we come to ruins of the Prytaneion, probably built in the Augustan period (27 BC - 14 AD). The Prytaneion served as the office of the city's leading government dignitary. Tall columned porches (called peristyles) formed a courtyard. The main room of the Prytaneion was used for public banquets, and the stone blocks in the center served as either an altar or a place for food preparation. At one time two statues of Artemis were in the courtyard (now in the Ephesus Museum). (This information was on a sign at the site.)



Not sure what this is, but I like it:



The Domitian Temple was built in honor of the emperor Domitian (81-96 AD).



The relief of the flying Nike:



Memmius Monument:



Curetes Street runs between the Hercules Gate (sorry, no photo) and the Celsus Library (photos further down). The photo directly below shows how very crowded it was the day we visited; the next photo was a wee bit later and you can see the street better:





Those columns in the distance are huge! Nothing we saw at Troy, Pergamum, or the Asclepieum were close to the size. No wonder this place is so crowded.

We start walking down Curetes Street. There used to be fountains, monuments, statues and shops on the sides of the street. But many earthquakes hit Ephesus, and most structures - especially columns - were damaged. Some columns were replaced by columns from elsewhere in the city; hence, they show different designs.

Partial statue and columns along Curetes Street:



The Fountain of Trajan was built around 104 AD. Built for Emperor Trajan, his statue used to stand in the center, overlooking a pool. The pool was 20x10 meters and surrounded by columns and statues. The statues are now in the Ephesus Museum (in Turkey).



Next along Curetes Street is the Temple of Hadrian. Hadrian was one of the "Five of Good Emperors" of the Roman Empire. During his reign (117-138 AD), there were not a lot of military actions; he ruled through strength rather than campaign. Hadrian was a patron of the arts, and he admired Greek culture. He visited Ephesus in 128 AD, and the Temple of Hadrian was built soon thereafter. It's amazing to realize that the Roman empire once reached all the way from past Turkey to Great Britain (known as Roman Britain at the time), as marked by Hadrian's Wall. One can only imagine how difficult it was to rule such a large empire back when transportation and communication were so slow.

The facade of the Temple of Hadrian has four Corinthian columns supporting a curved arch. The side columns are square. We try to imagine what it used to look like. Then Ali pulled out this neat museum book that showed how each ruined structure looks now, and then had an overlay page that showed how it looked in its prime. That was cool.



In the middle of the arch is a relief of Tyche, the goddess of victory.



Inside the temple is a human figure, probably Medusa:



On both sides of the Medusa there are friezes depicting the story of the foundation of Ephesus. This photo shows the left side - Androklos shooting a boar, Dionysus in ceremonial procession and the Amazons. These friezes in the photos are only copies; the originals are displayed in Ephesus Museum.



Can you guess what these are?



If you said "latrines" or something like that then you are right. The toilets are aligned along the walls, and there used to be a pool in the middle of the building. I seem to remember Ali saying these toilets were only for the elite, but this web site says they were the public toilets and there was an entrance fee to use them. Built in the first century, a canal system brought in water was in and there was a drainage system under the toilets. Hot air forced through these large clay pipes heated the walls.



We've been at Ephesus about an hour. Here is a look down hot and crowded Curetes Street:



We don't go back down Curetes Street quite yet. Ali has arranged for us to visit a special exhibit, the Terrace Houses, on the hill opposite Hadrian's Temple. This is a museum and an active restoration at the same time. The entire area is covered with a roof supported by scaffolding - a nice break from the unrelenting sun.

The Terrace Houses are where the elite of Ephesus lived. Built in the early Roman Imperial period (ca 20 AD), the units are multi-storeyed with tall, open interior courtyards framed by columned porches ("peristyle"). Living and work spaces were arranged around the courtyards. Rooms were heated by hot air carried by clay pipes beneath the floors and behind the walls. Hot and cold water was supplied and drained through a system of wells and canals. There were toilets and kitchens. Civilization!

The Terrace Houses were once richly decorated with mosaics and frescos. At the time of our visit, two of the houses had been partially restored by consolidating mosaics and frescoes from all of the original dwellings. The photo below shows a peristyle courtyard, the restoration supports, and tables full of pieces of walls, floors, frescos and art that are being fitted back together, like a big puzzle:



This spacious and high room is called the "Marble Hall". According to a sign at the museum, "around 100 AD it received marble furnishings on the walls and floors, a niche fountain at the back wall and a central basin. The banqueting hall provided a luxurious setting for both private and official occasions, and presented the social status and prosperity of the landlord plainly to every guest."



An example of a marble wall decoration being pieced back together:



Not sure what this led to:



Wall art:



This museum worker doesn’t seem too happy to see us:



Looking down:



Wall art:



Restoration in progress:



A lion mosaic on the floor:



A corner that shows wall art as well as water and heater pipes:



Courtyard, partially restored:



A series of earthquakes in the 3rd century AD put a sudden end to the dwellings in the city center of Ephesos. An extensive reorganization of the area took place in the early 7th century, when an early Byzantine handicraft quarter with mills, smithies and potteries was established over the Roman residential building. (Information from the signs in the museum.)

View from the hillside, where we exited the Terrace Houses:



Here we are, in our Turkey floppy hats:



Now we are getting to the tall structure that has been grabbing our attention all the time we walked down Curetes Street. It is the gigantic Celsus Library:



Celsus was the third richest library in ancient times after the Alexandra and Pergamum. The facade has two-stories, with Corinthian style columns, niches containing stature, and three entrances to the ground floor. The front facade (shown in the above photo) was rebuilt during the 1960s and 70s and is considered to be very true to the historic building, and now serves as a prime example of Roman public architecture.

This statue of Arete is the original statue; a rare site at Ephesus because most were moved to various museums. Arete is the goddess of valor.



We went through one of the doors in the facade into the interior room. This room has not yet been fully restored. Inside is a central apse, where once a statue of Celsus or Athena (goddess of wisdom) stood. Celsus’ tomb lay directly below in a vaulted chamber. John stood for a photo:



Along the other three sides of this room were rectangular recesses that held cupboards and niches for 12,000 scrolls. You can see one of the recesses on John's right in the above photo. There were double walls behind the bookcases to prevent them from heat, cold, and humidity.

The interior of the library and all its books were destroyed by fire in the devastating earthquake that struck the city in 262. Only the facade survived that quake, but it did not survive a later one that completely destroyed it.

Adjacent to the facade are the Gates of Mazeus and Mythridates:



Next to the library is the Agora, a huge market place and trade center. It dates from the third century AD.



We only visited the main site of Ephesus. In the surrounding area are other ruins to visit, some important to the Christian faith, as Ephesus was an important center for the early Christians beginning in 50 AD. For instance, there is the Basilica of St. John and the House of Virgin Mary. From AD 52-54, Paul lived in Ephesus, working with the congregation and organizing missionary activities. Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia cited in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written in Ephesus.

The Great Theater was constructed in the Hellenistic period, in the 3rd century BC. During the Roman period, it was enlarged to its current size of 25,000 seats. This theater reaches three stories tall and is the largest in Anatolia (the area of Turkey).



It's noon and the sun beats down on us as we walk to the Marble Road. I wish we could have spent a whole day here, a day with no one else around, a day not as hot as this one was, perhaps a day in the winter. A long day with a good museum book or a personal guide would have been perfect. I would have liked to sit and relax and have a picnic in the ruins of the library, walk in Hadrian's Temple, wander through the stones and crumbling structures, and discover more. Just think, two thousand years ago, intelligent, cultured humans lived here and built incredible structures. And a strong empire. Their buildings lasted for hundreds of years, until earthquakes brought them down. We know about their lives because they wrote of their history on papyrus scrolls. The scrolls in the Celsus Library were burned, but other scrolls survived to tell the stories. What will people two thousand years from now know about our culture? What "scrolls" and ruins will survive? What will mankind be like in two thousand years?

Such are my thoughts as we walk down the Marble Road and exit Ephesus.



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