Is anyone close to where the flooding hit or knows a lot about the area? I’m trying to get a sense whether this flooding was predictable or completely anomalous. The pictures make it look as if the rise in level of the river was unprecedented. Was it an area that floods like this frequently or was this a 500 year event?
Thanks.
I lived in New Mexico in areas with similar topography. Dry gulches had warning signs about flash floods, and water gauges showing how deep the floodwaters could be. Some had watermarks at over ten feet. Rain several miles away could flow and gather to a deep, fast-moving torrent that could strike with little warning. We had similar problems with the Millennial rains here in South Carolina a few years back. Rains up in the North West part of the state drained into the Pee-Dee, Congaree, and Cooper rivers, forcing them way above flood stage, and flooding out many towns in… Read more »
So maybe the severity of the flooding is what is changing. There were houses being swept away. Who would build a house in an area that had a history of that kind of damage?
Thanks for your info Ed. Different climates and different topography.
Photog, I live in the Texas Hill Country. I was not, personally affected but saw a lot of damage. There is a manufacturing facility near me that has been there for 25 years. It is way above any streams or dry creeks. It was flooded out due to the water coming down from higher up. The geography is mostly granite and limestone with a few inches of topsoil on top. When you get 11 inches of rain in 5 hours, it has nowhere to go. Camp mystic, where 28 girls drowned, was wiped off the side of the Guadalupe river.… Read more »
Thanks Chemist. So it’s a combination of things. They can have bad flooding from time to time but this was a much more extreme situation. It’s a different world where you are. We can have 10 inches of rain and it’s pretty wild here too but the deep topsoil will absorb an enormous amount of water an so spread out the time over which the runoff occurs. Those poor children and their poor parents.