We had the worst rain storm to-date pass through that causing a flash flood. Although common in the mountains with rivers, we were completely surprised to see our small creek explode and quickly flood the area! Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some photos of how the rainstorm affected our homestead.
Bear in mind these creeks are normally only a foot wide and about 6 inches deep!
This is a short video clip from our front porch. Notice the neighbor's home; flanked on two sides by flooded creeks. Luckily their home and barn were high enough to stay dry!
Normal vs. Flooding
The below series of photos are some "normal vs. flood" photos of places on our homestead.
The Biggest Damage
Our driveway took a big hit; flooding and the river of water washing a lot of gravel and base layer down and into our old corn patch. This will be a big cost to repair, both in time and money. Our driveway is about 400 feet long. We also need to put in some water diverters to hopefully prevent such extensive damage in the future.
An Underwater Garden
The garden was under water for a while and we expect the damage to really start creeping in over the next few days as it's been cloudy and everything is still soaking wet down there. Luckily, we did not loose any trellises or cages from the torrent, and our water hose was firmly wrapped around a post to keep it in place--though stretched out down stream.
Being Thankful
Even though we had some damage to the homestead property and most likely lost our garden for the rest of this year, we are very thankful that our home and livestock remained safe. Our home sits atop a knoll on the property and is roughly 30 vertical feet above the creek, if not more.
Our friends downstream from us were not as lucky. They have a farm and lost 400 chickens and had their hay barn flood. Things could always be worse. This is why we are thankful.
That's all for this post, see you in the comments below and on the next post,
@greenacrehome
Awe - you tomatoes look so sad n the photos :( Glad you were all safe, here's hoping the water at least left some fertile alluvium for next years garden.
@greenacrehome I am so sorry to see such hard work gone in a heart beat. My heart just breaks for you. Wish there was something more we can do as a community to help. All I can do is pray for a quick recovery for your land.
Thank you @gardengirlcanada, the land is drying up more and more each day, so it is doing okay. The well wishes and thoughtful comments are good enough for support for us. Thank you again.
I'm so sorry for this I hope you can recover quickly and with work and time everything will be better. By the way, what will you do with that little creek? is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future?
In theory one could build a levy wall all along the creek to try and buffer it, but that would be a several thousand foot long levy. This was a "100 year flood", or so it's being called. Extremely rare for this creek. We had about 4" of rain in one hour right on top of us.
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I pray you recover quickly. That is a lot of rain. Where is greenacrehome? I used to deal with this type of flooding fairly regularly growing up in the Houston area. Too much water can be a devastating occurrence.
Thank you for your prayers! We are in the mountains of NC.
Wow. You certainly don't expect flash floods in the mountains unless you're at the bottom of valley.
Resteemed, so sorry to hear about this. Praying for those affected.
Thank you @texasboys, much, much appreciated.
Oh no; I am so sorry to hear about this. And your friends loss; what a shame. But you are right; things could have been a lot worse for you. That is my motto, "Things could always be worse." Thank God your home, your lives and the livestock's lives were saved. I sure hope that this doesn't happen to you again.
Thank you @whatisnew, it probably will... we should plan on it to be safe. :)
That is not good how are your crops???
It's too early to tell yet. The tomatoes were hit hard with Wilt this year so they were gone before this, and the beans had already finished. Our peppers and onions are still to be determined over the next week or so.
It was a bad one! We got away with just minor damage to our bridge. We count ourselves blessed as the creek funs within 20 feet of our house! Alas we did not think to get the camera.. Good coverage of the storm greenacrehome!
Glad you skirted it!
So sorry you went through this! I hope it dries out and you can repair everything.
Thank you, today was sunny and things are looking drier.
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I'm so sorry this happened to you but on a positive note now that you know where the water travels perhaps you could build swales to move the water away from those areas.
That is right. We now know where it will tend to flood!
I am so sorry this happened. But relieved to hear that perhaps you will have limited damage. Mother Nature is unpredictable and met out pretty horrible storms. All you can do is to be prepared for the worst she can dish out and pray for the best.
Exactly right. Thank you for your kind words @cecicastor
Life is crazy sometimes! Its very interesting to see al the begore and after, almost as if you have seen it so many times, you knew exactly where to take before photos for the next flooding. Always fun to keep up with you! Thanks
The "before" photos were taken the day after the flood. If you look closely, you'll see signs of the flood--erosion, bent vegetation, etc. :)
Wow, that was a bad one. Sorry you lost the garden and the driveway is wrecked. Reminds me of our previous home. We were on a hill with a super long gravel drive, the rains would come and what a mess! Glad you are ok and the animals survived.
Then you surely know my pain with the gravel drive. :) I have some ideas to hopefully avoid the same washout again. I'm sure those methods will end up in a post someday.
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