[RC] And The Rains Came... And Came... And Came... - Stephanie E Caldwell
Wow Ridecamp sure is quiet, there must be rides
this weekend. I was hoping to come in and at least get to read about others
riding. LOL Here in Gastonia we logged around 5.3" of Rain Wednesday and
Thursday and I got another 3/4" in an hour at the barn today. Ugggghhhhh Will it
ever stop?
I haven't been to the barn since I rode Tuesday
night, my landlady feeds for me through the week. The impact of the rains really
didn't hit me until today. I talked to my riding buddy who lives about a mile
from the barn and she told me one bridge was underwater in the roads around the
barn and another had water touching the bottom. These bridges usually have a
good 15' under them before you get into the creek, I've ridden under
both.
On my way to the barn from my house in the city I
took the long way over a few bridges close to my trails. I've got some of the
most breathtaking trails here, the piedmont is great! Between three neighbors
I've got around 8,000 acres of private land not open to many other people and no
4-wheelers, what more could I ask for? The first bridge is the midway point of
our forrest loop, it's got a wide creek crossing usually about 2' deep. I
stopped on the bridge and got out to get a clear view, the creek was an easy 6'
deep and there were several large trees up against the bridge from the
current.
Next I drove over the bottom bridge at the end of
the forrest loop, this bridge had water touching it's bottom Friday night. Water
had receded somewhat, but when I got out and went down to the pipeline it was
flooded, making a usually 5' wide creek about 30' wide, 1' deep over the
pipeline area and around 20' deep in the creek bed. In the logged fields across
the road the creek covered about a 40' swath.
Then I went around the a bridge on the above creek
about 2 miles down stream, this one was under 5' of water Friday night. It was
*devestating* to see the effects, made me say a quick prayer that no one lived
in the path of this creek. Tree's 3' across had been uprooted and were tossed
like pickup sticks against the bridge and on the upward banks. The hayfields
close by had clearly been flooded and still had about 6" of water on them, the
bridge railing was partly missing and it was covered in mud.
My barn is on a hill, as is my pasture. However the
water came in under my foundation and I've got about 4" of water in some stalls,
in my area that's pretty good. My neighbor across the street has water in a 12"
wide swath about 12" deep all the way around the inside perimeter of the barn,
he said the creek in his pasture in about 4' deep, up from it's usual 4"! The
pond at the bottom of his hill has doubled in size and flooded the little gazebo
on the banks. This was just amazing. One of my other neighbors has 4' of water
in his barn...
Hope all y'all in the SE are fine, heard that
Eastern NC and Southern GA got hit worse than we did. My rain gauge at the barn
said 7 2/5" inches... Wow! Another inch coming tomorrow night, or so the weather
says!
