It looks like the waters are starting to recede, and that this weekend will be a beaut: Get your quads together! But before we leave the Great Spring Flood of 2007 behind us (and it looks like some of our neighbors will unfortunately be working on that for some time), here's some documentation.
Some of you probably saw Norm Thetford's description of the state of our boat house on Monday, but I reproduce it here, with photos from Wade Caszatt (Norm also has video footage for the archive):
"I went out there around noon. The water [is] at least two feet, probably 3 feet, over the lowest part of the fixed ramp, so that there is a 15+foot stretch of water between the ramp and the dock, with the water moving briskly. The launch appears well tied, with both a bow line on the starboard and the locked cable on port. It was riding fairly high, so the drain must not be clogged. There were a couple of large tree branches caught on the corner where the thermometer is and the cables, but they didn't seem to be causing any immediate problems. A piece of a plastic drum was caught on the upstream end of the dock but was not lifting it much."The river was running 6+ knots with large swells by the boathouse. Farther upstream, it was quite turbulent and all the houses opposite the Indian Head were partially submerged, by several feet. The gauge at Stevenson Dam is at 19.88 feet; Major Stage flood level is 20 feet and record stage is 24.5 feet, so this is a pretty good flood. I think it exceeds the level reached after the 2005 HOH.
"The park is under at least three feet of water, with only the tops of a few picnic tables and the dumpsters showing. The birds were all camped out on the tops of the boulders in the big field where we park trailers.
"Needless to say, the Maples homes of the Derby side were all inundated and even the homes on the Shelton side had water about a third of the way up the ground level."
Two impertinent thoughts struck us at the Catch. It was the first time some of us were grateful for our single's rack up in Cloud Country. And second, How is it the Club failed to schedule a regatta to coordinate with this storm? A committee will be formed immediately to study this question.
Oh yes -- the third impertinent question. Is that a duck, or is it Paul Roy in a duck suit?
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