Home to a mess

As you may have heard, the weather was terrible in the Bay Area while I was on vacation. Just up the hill from me there was a big landslide that has put several houses in jeopardy. I arrived home on Sunday to find a huge mess in the front yard (the house was fine, thankfully). Here’s what happened (and is still happening), in pictures:

Just to the left of the front stairs, a seasonal creek turns into a waterfall, which pours into a storm drain owned by the city. The drain clogged, the basin filled with water, and then everything poured over my retaining wall and down the driveway. The neighbor said he’s never seen it this bad before.

Here’s the view from above. You can see the trail of rocks, branches, and dirt going down the driveway. See the bucket near the stairs? There used to be a plant in there… when I got home, it was full of water, rocks, and nothing else.

Here’s the root cause of the problem: there’s supposed to be a storm drain here… instead it’s just mud and rocks.
Both myself and my neighbor have called the Public Works department, who have promised to send a crew out to clear out the drain. Nobody has shown up. My neighbor spend most of Saturday trying to dig out all the crap, but he didn’t succeed. Today, I tried to dig it out, and my biggest accomplishment was getting my clothes wet. There’s a good foot of mud on top of the drain, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere. The rain is supposed to stop, so it’s not going to get any worse, but this thing needs to be cleaned out. I’m hoping the city will actually do their part — it is their drain, after all.