I sampled aquatic insects for two years as part of a research study for the National Park Service, but the sampling period occurred during a drought and there was rarely water in the creek. A month after we stopped sampling, a massive flood ripped through the creek:
Rincon Creek, after the flood
This flood uprooted hundred year old trees (notice all the exposed tree roots to the lower left), significantly widened and straightened the creekbed, and wiped out the USGS stream gauge entirely. Impressive, though it would have been nice for this to happen during our study so there was actually some water… :)
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The Dragonfly Woman 
Timing is everything!
(OK, I admit I laughed the moment I read it flooded not too long after your research work ended. Sounds like my luck.)
I laughed when I heard it had flooded too! Seeing it was amazing though. The creek was dry 14 out of 24 months we worked there and I was sampling bugs from tiny little puddles of water. Then this MONSTER flood came along right after we were done and completely changed everything. It has flowed nearly constantly since then too! Pretty crazy. You have to roll with the punches when you do biological field studies though, especially in places where the weather is unpredictable like AZ.