6-12-11

 

Sunday Water Progression

 

As the water flows through the fields of Genola, it is taking some time to soak into the ground.  As we saw with the orchards, this may take a few days or even a week.  

 

A Bob’s eye view of the water on orchard road

 

 

Current water location–Sunday the 12th

 

 

 

6-10-11

 

Danger -  Water  Ahead

     In the last few months, there have been far too many water related deaths in Utah.  For the families involved – ONE is too many.  Here are some links to news stories recently which have taken the lives of children in our area
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/south/genola/article_58a955f9-b955-5d26-905e-259e02e3c6cf.html

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15740924


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705374190/Tooele-boy-pulled-from-river-becomes-4th-Utah-child-to-drown-in-past-2-weeks.html


http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-drowning-child-rescued-from-provo-river-20110604,0,6842245.story

Again, even one is too many.    Today, as well as tracking the progression of the water, I want to offer a wood of warning.   One is too many. 

Yesterday, that one could have been mine

As we made our (almost) daily walk down the orchard road – kids splashing in the water, mom taking pictures and video – this is what I came upon. 
All of us were within close proximity to each other.  We were all on foot.  All within eyesight but probably not within arm’s reach.  Suddenly, I was looking at this.  Joseph.  Wet from his neck down.  When I asked him if he had tripped, he said “no, I fell in the hole”.  The only sibling who had even seen him fall into the hole is a 5 year old and he did not even yell a warning.  Apparently he thinks his brother can swim!  And thankfully, Joseph said he did swim out.  We found out later yesterday that the hole is somewhere between 6 and 8 feet deep.  I think I will keep up my prayers of gratitude for a while!!!


To be honest, I must admit – when I had seen the amount of water rushing down the road, I wondered about the safety of letting my children walk in it one more time. 

I had even gone so far as to say no.  And then I caved to child pressure, took off my shoes and socks and walked with my children in the water – thinking that they would be remembering this summer forever. 

 

                                                              

  I am so grateful they will be having fun, pleasant memories of the walk.

I have a feeling, were it not for unseen angels, it

may have turned out very differently. 

As this water moves down through town, please know of the dangers, clear and hidden.  Know that almost all children are fascinated by water, and that water-related accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. 

And for  an update on the water itself……….

the flow of the water seems to be increasing each day.

Many people are working very hard on this water situation, changing paths of water depending on the current levels.  Earlier this week, water was running down the south side of the highway.  It took the reservoir from looking like this:

To this in just about 48 hours

It is just about full to capacity, and it looks like plans have been made to divert any overflow out of the reservoir, down the road to the north to the low spot, and across the fields (near the orchard road).

When we moved to Genola, this reservoir was always full to the edges.  As much as I have worried about the flood water, and it’s effects on our community, I have missed this beautiful sight!!!

Because the reservoir is almost full, more water is being sent down between our house and Johnsons.  The waterfall is very large and is creating quite a bit of erosion. 

There is much more water running down the orchard road. 

It has reached the last berm – which is holding the water to this point. 

This barricade seems to be keeping the water from Dale’s house so far.

From here, Dale Davenport and his boys have dug a trench to carry the water through the field and harm as possible. 

6-9-11

What a difference a day makes!!

I was chatting the other evening, with one of Davenports daughters. She mentioned that her parents had come up to visit her, but seemed worried and anxious to get back home. I thought I understood THEN what her parents might have been feeling.

I, too, have begun to feel uncomfortable when not at home. Whether I am sitting at the park with friends, or walking the aisles at a local grocery store, my mind is drawn again and again to what is going on just outside of my home.

I have never in my live given a second thought to the safety of my home, to the risk of my neighbors home, to the measurement of water in the area, to the erosion damage and tree damage said water might be creating....

Yet now it seems to live with me. An unsettled feeling. A feeling of needing to be there, needing to know.

And yet life does go on. Sometimes we are required to leave and pray that all will be will in our absence. Yesterday, I packed my van full of children, clothing, and bikes and headed north to help my sister with her tiny twin boys. As always, the preparation took longer than expected. As we were driving out of Genola, around 10:00 am, I noticed almost no water on the orchard road. I was impressed. My thoughts lingered for a moment on the fact that maybe, just maybe those trees could recover.

The water in the reservoir at the end of the road on Wednesday There water was shallow enough
to see the weeds growing up through it.

These pictures are from Wednesday morning - This is the water running down the south
side of highway 6.  This is 1/2 of the water that is causing the flooding.  The other 1/2 is running down beside
Johnsons house.



I came home last night for a brief meeting at the church.  As I drove around the corner, just at the reservoir, My chin almost hit the steering wheel.  The reservoir was full - close to overflowing.  The orchard road, leading to Davenports was flooded completely with water, and the flow of water in the canal was intense.   That is the only word I can think to use - an intense amount of water.  

The water flowing on the Johnsons property is the highest and fastest it has been to
this point

The water is completely covering the orchard road and moving very rapidly.

Overnight, the orchard has gone from flooding on row 4
to fully flooded from approximately 27 to 37.  It is no longer
one or two trees per row.  It is a lake IN the orchard.

I am not sure if the sandbags were removed (the canal is full to capacity and then some)
or if the force of the water pushed them over.

In a 36 hour period, the waterfall has quadrupled in size.

So many changes in only 36 hours.  From almost dry to water, water everywhere.  It is no wonder I am uncomfortable when away from home.  No wonder I am drawn, in my mind to wondering about the water.  There truly is a feeling of needing to be home, as the waters rage, erode, and increase.  

6-7-11

Self Sufficient!

   I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the people of Genola are a RARE breed!!!  They tend to do what needs to be done, no questions asked, and with no expectations that anyone is going to save themselves except for themselves!  

I had not yet found the place to post this story.  It is related to the water in Genola, only so far as our neighbors, Chris and Vonna, have been much in the limelight as the water comes and goes.  Now, however, I can tie the beginning to the end, and show you how this story involves the water, the canal, etc.On Memorial day,  our family was sitting around the table eating dinner and noticed our neighbors to the south (remember each house is on 2 1/2 or more acres, so not really in your yard neighbors) looking across the back of our property.  We tried to figure out if they were watching the waterfall, and tried not to be too nosy.  We made the kids finish eating before they began racing for the back door.  We finally yelled over the fenceline see what they were so interested in.  I think Bob's heart and mine both missed a beat as they said "We're watching the accident.  Chris rolled his tractor."  While the hearts may have skipped a beat, knowing how bad  a rolled tractor can be, the legs started running.  Bob and Robby ran for the neighbor's yard to see if they could help.  I ran for the camera.  This was was what I saw, wanting to know what was happening, but not wanting to get in the way of any rescue attempt.  

  

To make a long story short - Chris said he had been trying out the new hydraulic digging arm on the tractor up on the bank.  His wife, Vonna had told him several times that it was going to roll, and that only a dummy would keep doing something so dangerous (in not so many words).   She got a small video clip of him digging, so that he could see how awful it looked.  She turned off the camera, stepped away from the action for a minute, and back just in time to see the tractor roll over, with her husband going under it.  Thankfully, Chris retained his senses.  He was able to talk a family member through finding a jack and using it to give him just enough room to get out from under the tractor.  After his ambulance ride to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a broken collarbone, three broken ribs and a punctured lung.  

Keeping in mind - this was ONE week and ONE day ago  - this is what I saw this morning:

Still busted up, Chris was out by the road, trying to repair the water line for his irrigation.  The one he did not break.  The one he did not cause to be broken.  He just went out and got it fixed.  I'll admit, Robby and I got down there lickity split and helped as best we could once we saw what he was up to, but talk about 

SELF SUFFICIENT!!!

AND........

Water update for today:

There was NO water until 2:00 pm today.  It was still diverted 

from yesterday's pipeline repair.  The extra sandbags/plastic sheeting finally gave way at 2pm. It is releasing a small portion of water in comparison to what had been coming over.  The canal behind the makeshift repair is heavily swollen, and from what I undesrtand, this is only 1/2 of the runoff water.  The other half is still being run down the south side of Highway 6.  

Only a small amount of water compared to what has come over in
the past few weeks.

A lot of pressure behind these sandbags.  I'm thinking we may need some rebar?

almost no water on the road today.

You can see the new gravel where a large hole was filled in.  

There are still depressions in the road from erosion, but nothing like
the sinkholes that were there!

On our nightly water hunt, we were unable to find water until we got to row 4
in the orchard.  24 hours of  NO WATER and higher temps, and it was actually difficult to find
the water!

The small amount of water making it to the culvert under the road.  Can you say sinkholes?????

6-6-11

Upside/Downside


On the upside, Questar natural gas came out today to *gasp* fix the orchard road that was cracking over the natural gas  pipeline.  I'm sure this was because "their pipe is safely buried at 10 ft. deep".  


All sarcasm aside - it was very nice to see them out there, taking care of a potentially hazardous situation - even if they did not "cause" the situation.  

A good friend assured me this afternoon that the orchard road was dry.  I laughed,
scoffed, made fun of her just a bit (sorry Brooke!) and said goodbye.

Just in time to answer a 2nd phone call from Charles Davenport - telling me that indeed,
the road was dry.  The water had been diverted so the gas company could fill some
of the holes that had developed over the pipeline. 

Marking showing areas that had sunk.

Yet another very clear showing that this water CAN BE TURNED OFF

The pathway that two canal companies have CHOSEN to create

changing property, ruining trees, eroding pipeline.....

CAN be diverted to other places.

Why isn't it?

The downside is - When I went downstairs to take some camping gear to the basement today, 

I noticed all types of cracking in the basement floor.

I took pictures, Christmas 2009 of the road freshly painted.  I have looked at them,
almost with a magnifying glass and don't see this type of cracking.


Hopefully, these cracks have been there, and not noticed,
because there has been no reason to notice them.
I guess I'll add something else to my watch list
figure out how to map them,
measure them,
reassure myself that they are not growing, widening....

Somehow, I feel like there is a monster in my basement!!!!!

Where Saturday brought water back to the orchard road, the warmer weather added to that water, and to the erosion of that road, on Sunday.  

The water changed from running mostly down the side of the road, to running over almost the entire road.  There are numerous cracks and holes in the road itself, and some parts seem very unstable for vehicles.

 Our most interesting find of the evening, was a FISH that was swimming down the road.  Guess we'd better be calling the road a stream now!

I also tried to take a look at the leaves on the trees - those sitting in water, compared to those not sitting in water.  I will be the first to admit, I am not a botanist, or tree specialist of any kind - but it does appear the leaves of the trees sitting in water are beginning to show signs of damage.  

The water is again over most of the orchard road.

Water coming from the flooded orchard

Signs of damage to the road - the long crack here is
started by a hole in the ground where water is running
underneath.

More cracking

I am glad she was brave enough to catch that fish.
I certainly would never have believed a story of a fish
swimming down the orchard road!!!

First berm - leading the water into the field 

Thought the moon was a nice touch

The last berm.   Still plenty of water headed here, and from here into a small ditch
in the field

As long as the water keeps coming, the road will continue to crack and sluff off. 

These are leaves that I picked off
of trees standing in water.  Keep in mind, it was
pretty dark.  I did not pick them with the intent
of showing the MOST damaged leaves.  

These pictures were of leaves whose trees were not sitting in the water.
I think we are seeing signs of the trees beginning to die.