FLOOD

A Flash flood swept over our bottom pastures and hay fields on Wednesday. Here is the aftermath.

This fence has been flattened by the water and debris.

More destroyed fencing and debris to clean up.


Destroyed fencing and logs from the neighbor's pile.

If you have seen the news recently, you know that several central states have flooded over the last few days. There was a lot of damage in Arkansas. Our bottom pasture land flooded. One of our neighbors had cut down 100 cedar trees and had the logs stacked. Another neighbor had several round bales of hay sitting in his field. All of the trees and several bales were forced onto our land by the raging water. This part of our farm was under between 5 to 10 feet of water. All of the fences are destroyed and must be replaced. It is just a mess.

The is the Illinois Bayou. We own 4000 feet of frontage along it where our bottom hay fields are. The first row of trees and brush you see (not the three in the mid-ground) sit along the edge of an embankment. Twenty feet below is the normal water level of the river. As you can see, the river has completely filled it's "valley" and risen several feet above the level of dry land on the top of the embankment. This picture was taken AFTER the flood in the fields had receded. If we had been standing on this spot at the time of the flash flood we would have been killed. Happily, our house is on much higher ground at least 1/2 mile from the river. Our yard was a pond, but our house is fine and so are the barns. It will take us all summer to clean up that mess and repair the fencing. UGH!