High Water

Roundabout Exit 151, after a summer's worth of rain all in one week, it's finally stopped raining! There's blue sky and sunshine!!

DH and I went to have a look at a small dam a few miles north of us. Usually, there's a quiet trickle out of one of the sluiceways. Today, from some distance away, we could hear a great roar and see spray rising high into the air. We were surprised to see water rushing over the top of the dam.



There had been some attempt to make the dam higher using wooden floodgates. Ordinarily, the rocks below the temporary floodgates can be reached without wading. They're usually a nice place for a picnic.



Downstream from the dam, the normally placid river was a torrent well above its banks. Judging from the debris, the water level had already fallen more than 4 feet (1.2 m), but it's still very high. That's a small tree in the middle of the river.



Fortunately, this dam is strong and holding well, but even so there's been serious flooding further downstream. I don't think I'll say "over the top" quite so casually anymore.