SWEPT AWAY

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO LOSE EVERYTHING--TWICE? THE SAD, SOGGY TOWNS OF MONTEREY COUNTY JUST FOUND OUT

JAMES RODDA BEGAN TO HAVE SECOND thoughts about his decision to ride out the storms when his 5-ft. 4-in. wife Gloria opened their front door and met a 5-ft. wall of water. It was 8 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in Mission Fields, just outside Carmel; the lights were out, the phones were down, and there was no one left in the neighborhood to hear them screaming. California was in the middle of its second "100-year storm" in three months, and the Carmel Valley was in for a very bad night.

At 4 o'clock that afternoon, when the water began crawling...

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