I've only seen two flash floods in my entire life, both entirely by accident – I wasn't chasing them like these guys. Both the flash floods I saw looked much like this, though the character of the brush was a bit different (being Southern Californian chaparral). They aren't at all like the flash floods of Hollywood or many western novels – there's no 50 foot high wall of water that appears without warning.
On the other hand, if you do something stupid like, say, parking your RV in the wash and going to sleep – you're likely to get quite a rude surprise! In one of the flash floods I witnessed, exactly this happened. I saw the RV being washed along the by the torrent, flipping over and over. About 15 minutes after the RV went by, the owners (a young couple) came huffing up, trying to catch up with it. They managed to get out of the RV before the flood tipped it over, but getting to shore was touch-and-go. They were both quite scared. I gave them a ride, first down to where their RV was still tumbling along, now beaten almost beyond recognition. It was a total loss. Then I gave them a ride into the town of Ocotillo, where they parked themselves in an air-conditioned business and awaited help from relatives.
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