Flood of '07

[Thomas]

YIKES... now that's a lot of rain drops.
Indeed you folks have had some mighty strange weather down there.

All that planing of your dam etc..pay off...looks strong...hope there's not to much clean up afterwards.

 

[jinman]

YIKES... now that's a lot of rain drops.
Indeed you folks have had some mighty strange weather down there.

All that planing of your dam etc..pay off...looks strong...hope there's not to much clean up afterwards.

Thomas, I'm going to post a couple more pictures I probably should have posted at the beginning of this thread. The first picture is an aerial photo of my two ponds and the lake under normal conditions. Actually, this photo is before I dug out the small pond in the foreground, but it shows the shape of the lake dam and the overflow cut on the right side that I was discussing with Eddie Walker.

In the second photo, you can see the normal overflow drain at the far right of the photo. It shows the slatted box surrounding the pipe to keep brush out.

The next two photos are me wading out to get my little boat so we could take a lake tour.

The final photo is the normal overflow pipe behind the lake dam.

I'll post more photos later if there is more interest in seeing them.

...just one more photo...my neighbor's dock. Look at the walkway. Normally it is level or goes down to the dock.

 

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

That first picture shows the spillway really good. I had no idea they would have built it so far above the pipes, but I'm assuming they wanted to control the amount of water that comes out. As it is, it looks like it will take a week or more to drain nice and slowly, which will prevent any massive damage downstream. Smart, but still shocking for you guys living on the lake.

Some comercial construction requires a retention pond to be dug when the trees are removed. The added runoff creates a hazard to those downstream, so the pond is needed to hold the water and slowly release it. I've seen this in a few RV Parks here in Texas, and that's what it looks they did with your lake. Hold the water so it's only allowed to flow downstream slowly.

Pretty cool.

Eddie

 

[jinman]

Some comercial construction requires a retention pond to be dug when the trees are removed. The added runoff creates a hazard to those downstream, so the pond is needed to hold the water and slowly release it. I've seen this in a few RV Parks here in Texas, and that's what it looks they did with your lake. Hold the water so it's only allowed to flow downstream slowly.

Pretty cool.

Eddie

I think you are right, Eddie. In this case, since it's a soil consevation lake, they wanted to allow enough time for the sediments to settle and not fill up the streams and creeks downstream. Our lake will die a slow death because it will fill up with sediment.