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!

Progress after The Flood

With very few exceptions we have been out at the lake every day, working on the enormous task of cleaning up.  It's amazing how many things a flood can wreck, ruin, mess up, damage, float away, drown, and displace.  

Progress so far:  a lot of the dreadful, 'Dirty Jobs' tasks are complete.  Walls and floors are scrubbed and sanitized.  All salvageable patio furniture has been scrubbed, shampooed, dried in the sun.  The woodpile, which had floated away, has been retrieved log by log and put where it belongs.  Tons of sticks, twigs, leaves--raked and burned, or stacked with the woodpile.

A neighbor who runs a sawmill came for the giant cypress snag; he sawed it in half and dragged it away behind his four-wheeler.  The propane company came and rescued the upended tank.  For some jobs, we hired help.  Carpet, padding, buckled flooring--removed.  Wet insulation under floor and in walls--removed and bagged.  The contaminated ductwork under the house will be replaced tomorrow.

The small bedroom's  flooring is gone, revealing a non-standard system of beams.  Safe enough, but not a good underpinning for tile.  We'll use vinyl tile and put an area rug in place.  The lower 18" of drywall will have to be cut out and discarded, so we will replace that with beadboard wainscoting--something scrubbable.  Did  you know they have polystyrene molding and trim nowadays?

The sunroom is a different place (thank heavens.)  We will use an epoxy coating on the concrete--waterproof, nonskid, scrubbable.  The new airconditioner had been installed just a week before the flood; it was undamaged.  Thanks to cool weather and the a/c, we did not have to battle mold.  

The displaced sunroom furnishings are piled in the main room of the house.  Interesting decorator touch, no?

The DHubby has already made one trip to the landfill with a trailer-load of ruined stuff.  These giant contractor bags are filled with the wet insulation from the crawlspace.  

Ready for transport!

Not everyone believes in hauling stuff to the landfill.  Our elderly neighbor has a huge burn pile.  It may include some things that should not be burned in the open air.  Old ways die hard.

Being underwater for a week did not faze this rose.

Note the lush vegetation, which LOVED the flood conditions.

Lake Conway looks so innocent, does it not?  On the night of April 30/May 1st, after rainfall in excess of 7 inches, the lake rose 5.45 feet above its normal level--a 500-year flood that was not preventable by any means.  The ground was already saturated and rivers and streams above flood stage; there was no place for the water to go.....except places where it had never gone before. 

The Flood Giveth....

The Great Blogspot Outage has eaten my previous version of this amusing incident.  
I will recreate it and hope there is no repeat disaster.

This is a one-year-old rose bush named Little Pinkie, planted in front of the new fence at the lake--and it has just spent more than a week completely immersed in filthy flood-water.  


I was delighted to see that, undaunted, the rose has buds that are about to open.


I was admiring Little Pinkie and saying some complimentary things about its plucky spirit, when I noticed something odd.





Little Pinkie appeared to be looking at me!

In mid-picture, notice two yellow eyes....

There, amid the twigs, stems, and other detritus caught in the rose canes and leaves, was a little gift from the flood.....


This is a very nice bass lure, which we'll put to the test when we have leisure to fish again.


The flood giveth, and the flood taketh away.

Flood

Major storms beginning April 15th have battered Arkansas (and much of the Southern tier of states.)  Heavy rains have saturated the ground and then, as they continued, created serious flooding which continues to increase statewide as creeks, rivers, and lakes reach record levels.  Lake Conway, where we have a little getaway home, has risen to unheard of levels; our neighbors, who have lived on the lake for 33 years, have never seen anything like this.

 The view from the sunroom is pretty wet.  This part of the house is the lowest, and the high water line is at 18".

 The propane tank was afloat, breaking a connector and leaking; the fire department came out and turned it off.  We will have the LP provider take the tank away, since the propane heater was ruined.  An electric replacement will be simpler.


In the foreground is a huge snag that washed in where our fencing was being repaired on one side of the property.

 Our neighbor's equipment shed--pretty much everything in it is toast. 




Below, our shed was a pretty big mess inside, but we have hope that the miter saw and chain saw will survive. 

 Big snag!  Definitely hope the chain saw has survived its dunking.  (It was up a big higher on something heavy that didn't float and turn over.)





The worst thing about a flood is the stench.  The water is contaminated by a multitude of substances.  

We are relatively fortunate.  Although we didn't have flood insurance (we're on slightly higher ground and had never had water into the house) we can afford the repair and replacement costs (though we'll wince).  This is not our primary residence, either, and we've gotten off relatively lightly, considering that only a few things were completely ruined--none of it irreplaceable.  Families of Canada geese are enjoying swimming through the yard, which is still deep under water.