Used to think local climate protests were pointless until my street flooded twice this spring

I live in a low lying part of Portland near the river, and after the second big rain in May my whole basement took on 3 inches of water. My neighbor who's been pushing for rain garden installations for years helped me sandbag the doorway, and it hit me that she wasn't just being dramatic. Now I'm actually looking into joining the neighborhood resilience team they're trying to start. Has anyone else had a weather event totally flip how they see community action?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_brown101mo agoMost Upvoted

Same thing happened to me last year after that freak hailstorm took out my car and half the neighborhood's roofs. I totally brushed off the people in my HOA who kept pushing for better drainage and emergency plans, figured they were just busybodies. Then I was the one standing in water up to my ankles trying to save my box of keepsakes while they were already organized and handing out sandbags. It really woke me up to how much those little local groups actually matter when stuff gets real.

mary_foster921mo ago

Man, that hits close to home. We got organized after our culvert backed up and flooded the road, now we do maintenance checks every fall and it's made a huge difference.

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