When checking out the flood situation Monday night, I quite enjoyed taking pictures of my children enjoying the frigid water. I did not think I would need the pictures. However - yesterday, most of the water disappeared. I thought I would use some of the kid pictures to show just how much water was running down the orchard road.
Yesterday morning, 5-31-11, Sherry Carrol, a neighbor to the north called to tell me that someone had been out working to repair the breached canal at 8:00 am. I was not sure what she meant. The kids and I took a tour and this is what I found:
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| You can see that the water has dramatically lessened. The flattened grass on the sides of the water marks the place the water WAS running. |
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| The canal is now very full again |
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| This is a picture of the water running into the canal, and the makeshift barrier erected to stop the water? Maybe 1/4 of the water. |
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| A front view of the water coming from a very full canal, over the sandbag, plastic wall. |
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| We followed the water to the end of the canal, near Carrol's house. Even with the debris, the water was still flowing. |
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| This is the canal/pipe that was near Fowers a month ago. I stopped to take some pictures of water on the grass. The pipe in the background is the one that now lays on top of the ground, the ditch covered. |
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| Someone said Mike, worried about the flooding, and the ditch overrunning piped the canal himself. Again - self sufficiency! |
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| Our water hunt ended by Sheryl Fower's house. I am guessing that from here, the water goes to five corners, and then through town. I guess at this point, I am baffled. I don't understand why the canal next to us was ever breached - if what we are seeing now is - the water going where it was intended to go? It looks as if a little bit of pre planning, or less panic may have kept this situation from happening. It looks like Genola will most likely get to foot the bill for a new culvert pipe, as well as a very lengthy installation process. Chris Johnson gets to deal with a man made lake and a very large trench on his property. The Fowers get to deal with a swath that has again been cut into their orchard. The farmer across the road from me gets to deal with dead trees, sitting in pools of water. And all this time, the water could have gone where it was supposed to? I guess we will wait and see what happens as the weather warms. Let me leave you for tonight with a before and after picture. Before was the orchard road on Monday night. The after was the orchard road Tuesday night. Truly baffling. I am not trying to be ungrateful for the reprieve. I am happy that the rapid flow of water has been slowed. I am just left wondering why it was not done right in the first place, and if the water will continue on it's current path once the weather warms, and the snow begins to melt. |
Wow, what a story! I am very glad to hear this news - I hope it continues to go where it was supposed to in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, it looks like despite the adults' concerns, the kids have had a blast over there in their new improvised swimming holes.
When I was a kid growing up in Illinois, we often had flooding on our street when the drainage grates would plug up. We thought it was the greatest thing in the world to put on our bathing suits and go play in the street "swimming pool" - haha! We also thought it was so cool when we'd drive through the street barely being able to see the tires - I never thought about it much from an adult's perspective - for a bunch of little kids, it was a great heavenly adventure!