Well, things at Corona have gone from bad to worse.
Despite the dry sunshine, the water level at the airport continues to rise. This is primarily because of the warm temperatures, which are melting snow in the mountains and driving the runoff down toward Prado Dam. Or as it might more accurately be described, Prado Lake.
Today the water claimed Procraft, the largest maintenance shop on the field. It also overran the fuel island, the pilot lounge, another paint shop, and at least 100 hangars, not to mention who knows how many smaller businesses based at the field. My mechanic, Dave Palacios, was evacuating his newly remodeled shop at around 4:00 this afternoon. He’s based on the east side. The “safe” part of the airport.
As if there was such a thing anymore.
Adding insult to injury are the high winds which whipped through the Santa Ana Canyon. Normally high winds are not a problem, but there are currently about ten times as many airplanes on the east end of the field as there are tiedowns. The ramp is made of concrete, so there’s no way to dig into the ground with a portable set of tiedown stakes. So most of the aircraft are sitting out there with nothing but a set of chocks around the tires.
Some intrepid folks cut through the security fence surrounding the airport and started hauling airplanes off the airport completely.
I don’t have any new photos to share, but Dan captured some great video of the carnage (1.5 meg, WMV format) from the air.
It looks like God spilled his 32 (billion) ounce Big Gulp.
“Dammit, I told Him to put a lid on that thing…”
UPDATE: AOPA has picked up this story and even included Dan’s video. My sister-in-law told me that Fox News did as well. I also saw it on an NBC news broadcast.