Editor's notebook — Aug. 12

Rain drops falling: Here’s an example of when it rains, it pours around here:

Much of the High Plains got wet on this night in 1917, but parts of the Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico had enough rain to stop a train.

“Glenrio was isolated Monday so far as train service was concerned,” Quay County’s Obar Progress reported.

“A bad track washout occurred between Adrian and Vega, Texas, and several miles of road (were) badly damaged between Lesbia and Tucumcari. No train passed through here on that day.”

The newspaper, which served what’s now a ghost town near the Texas-New Mexico line, reported “the whole country is pretty well soaked”

Tucumcari may have been hit hardest of all — 5.8 inches of rain in two hours, the paper reported.

“The water ran 2 feet deep in the streets. All trains were delayed. The damage is estimated at $30,000. ”

The National Weather Service reports Tucumcari received 14.26 inches of rain in 1917 — almost 9 inches of it coming in August and September.

The Clovis-Portales area received about a half-inch rain of that night, the first of six consecutive days with recorded rainfall, NWS reports.

— Editor’s Notebook is compiled by Editor David Stevens. Contact him at: [email protected] or find him on Facebook.