Still Dry Despite the Rain

We had a little rain over the week-end. About an inch spread out over the last three days. We still need more than a foot to play catch up from last year's severe drought. And, predictions are that it will be hot and dry again this year. Though it looks like we're going to have some wild flowers this spring, the river that runs through it is still low. This was taken in the fall and it's still the same. You can see, at the bottom of the bridge supports, the normal "high" water mark, though in flood this bridge has been under water.

And that's what people are talking about, that we need a small flood, not only to fill the river, wells and aquifer, but to flush the river of built up debris.

As in this picture of a huge cypress log being carried along.

This is an island in the middle of the river called Tranquility Island. Tranquil isn't it, with the huge bald cypress trees to walk under, and the river placidly drifting by? 

This is just below Tranquility Island, which is under water. See that bridge behind the trees? I've see the water more than half-way up the supports. I've seen refrigerators and small cars in the trees. (No joke!)

Here's a picture of a vehicle that's buried on Tranquility Island.

One time during a flood my husband and I went up to the "big" dam about a mile up stream from where the above pictures were taken. We saw the most extraordinary thing. We saw grackles (You know grackles? They are a large, noisy, gregarious bird) hitching rides on pieces of debris, logs and such, and floating down river. Then, just as the log was about to go thundering over the dam, the birds flew off, veered back up stream and hitched a ride on another log.  They did it over and over. Many of them, not just a few. They were playing. It was like they were at a Disneyland for grackles.

We had only 13 inches of rain last year, when our average is around 34. Since January there's been about 5 inches, for which we are grateful. But we need a flood. Around here they're called frog chokers. At least here, in the Hill Country, most people are safe when the river rises, there's time to get out of the way and few homes are built in flood plains. But it can still be dangerous. People have lost their lives.

Have you ever been in a flood?