Great post

Off topic but, I wonder if the term "hell or high water" is a biblical reference to the great flood. There's not a lot of information about this and no definitive origin.

Hell on earth = wickedness of man, flood = the purge of the wicked. "Come hell or high water" = perseverance no matter what.

The earliest known written reference to this that I can find is from 1882:

The first printed reference comes from an Iowa newspaper, The Burlington Weekly Hawk Eye, dated May 1882: “Since that time the best of my friends had become enemies and strangers have become friends. The devil had broke loose in many parts of the country and keeping up with the old saying, we’ve had unrevised hell and high water, and a mighty heap of high water, I tell you.”

But that reference also clearly states "the old saying", which means the term was definitely used prior to 1882, and the origin is not known.