High Water

Lake Conway flooded last year--disastrously--and it took us months to repair and recover.  Poor oversight and response on the part of the lake managers made things worse than it had to be, but the event was so serious that flooding was unavoidable even in the best of circumstances.

The big rain event this week was seen to be approaching well in advance of its arrival.  Lake managers opened the dam gates and lowered the lake, and sand and bags were made available around the lake's landings.  The rains began in late afternoon Tuesday, intensifying through the night and continuing through Wednesday; the total at our Conway house was more than 5 inches in all.  An unwelcome additional inch fell on Thursday afternoon and evening.

Today we drove out to Lake Conway to check on our place....

The dock surface is under water; snags have been driven in by wind and waves.  The lake is about 4 feet above normal (thoroughly out of its banks.)  

Where's the chainsaw?  These snags are massive.  

The view from the swing...the fence is 20 feet from the normal lake's edge.  All of my little rosebushes are under water.  They survived last time, so I expect them to live through this, too.

Never did light off this fire ring--it was too windy when we were out last weekend.   

 Way more water than we need....you can see that the lake has receded somewhat, leaving a broad line of detritus at the high-water mark.  I will be raking it up and burning it for weeks to come, after I sort out the junk (bait cans, water bottles, bobbers, lures, etc.) that was dumped by boaters.  


The crepe myrtles and day lilies are enthusiastic about conditions.

 The chain-link fence has a line-up of snags; the dock is out of reach for now, and the crepe myrtle in the previous shot is now on the left of the picture.  The ridge of dross in the foreground is what I will be raking up and burning for some days to come.  

Coots are swimming blithely through the yard.  It will take some days for the lake to return to its normal bed.  We are hoping this is our only high-water event for this spring.  Cross your fingers!