the floods

THE FLOODS

that is a friend standing in the river that was about a quarter of a mile from our country n house in texas
that is a friends son who is about 3 years old
the river is easily walked across when the water level is low


this is ms b and my wife she and our dog marley at about the same spot
kids loved playing in the water throwing rocks and seeing them skip finding tadpoles and minnows

its amazing this calm pleasant peaceful cool location could become a raging river in just a few hours

once when we were in the middle of a ten year drought this river became a trickle
at some points it was just wet rocks you could walk across

at its driest point i hiked the river bed
there were pools of water that you could walk around
fish had been trapped in the water
i was able to walk from the point i am standing then along the river bed for 3 miles to a bridge which was on the road that the country n was located

i felt like i was in the wilderness miles from civilization

there were cliffs i didnt realize were there
i heard tons of birds and other animal sounds
i heard no human sounds at all

it was an experience of solitude i will always remember

in the 17 years we lived at the country n we would get these torrential rains like what happened in texas recently

once in july i was at home by myself as my wife she and her visiting mom were in east texas visiting relatives

at bout 3 in the am i was awoken by this god awful sound of a thunderstorm and lightning and rain and hail on our metal roof

if you have ever been in a building with a metal roof in a hail storm you know how loud it could be

i had left our upstairs bedroom window open to let in fresh air that night
when i was abruptly woken by the noise i jumped out of bed
the screen from our window had been blown out into the room and hail was being blown across our bedroom onto the far wall

this torrential rain lasted for about an hour
later i found out it was 10 inches of rain
all dumped on us in a few hours

i eventually went back to sleep and when i woke i could hear what sounded like a big ole freight train down by the river
it wasnt a train it was the river
that sound lasted for days

i walked down to the river
well
the river was up over that embankment shown in the picture several yards up above that area

the river looked like those pictures showed earlier this month from texas

when we would get rain like this we would be flooded in
we couldnt get out either way on our main road
it usually would take a few days for it too clear up enough to get to the main road

now the country n and its pastures were never in danger of flooding
interesting enough our pastures never had standing water in them
there was a gradual slant of the land to the river so i guess the water just flowed that way

now i always said that we must be sitting over a big limestone cave since the water disappeared so fast

we never flooded on our property

as you turn right out of the country n about a quarter mile was a low water crossing that usually when rain was predicted it would be all marked off or blocked completely

once a thunderstorm came through during the night and dumped a ton of water just above this church creek and flooded the low water crossing
for some reason i dont remember i went to work early when it was dark
i had no idea it had rained hard 
as i drove my small compact toyota i hit the water gushing across the road
i could feel my wheels not touching the road
i momentarily felt myself floating 
then
my momentum seem to carry me through to the other side
safely thank goodness

i had no idea 

another time a storm hit like this in the middle of the night
a state worker unfamiliar with this road at midnight was bringing a couple of foster kids they had to confiscate from a family hit that low crossing and unlike me was carried down a raging creek now almost like a river about a 100 yards downstream
the car got wedged against a tree but it filled up with water
luckily the worker climbed out of the roof and was able to pull the kids safely to the roof

luckily a nearby elderly lady just happened to be up and heard the screams for help 
a water rescue team showed up after a while and rescued them
cold wet but alive

on that night when we got that 10 inches of rain dumped on the country n the road just before the low water crossing was completely washed away and the hole left was about 6 feet deep

luckily no one crashed into that hole before it was repaired

turning left out of the country n it was about 3 miles to the bridge i had walked to
the water level that night got to the bridge but didnt go over it
further down that road though the water had the highway flooded in several locations

i was flooded in that day so i stayed home
it took a day or two for the water to receded enough to get out

while living at the country n we learned to respect the power of water and flooding
if water was across a road we didnt cross it

in the area where we lived several people drowned in these latest floods

these floods will happen again
will they be ready or will folks forget about this tragedy

i hope they learn from these tragedies

turn around dont drown 

yes
it will flood again
lets dont forget what happened

the organicgreen doctor