Not a 100-year flood (yet)
I'm pretty sure our
current flood is the
biggest one since we've moved to the farm, but you shouldn't be alarmed
--- we won't be getting our feet wet any time soon. We live up on
an abruptly-raised plateau that allows us to survey the floodwaters,
but we'd need an astounding amount of rain for the water to get up this
high. In fact, we aren't even at 100-year flood levels yet.
Old-timers in the area
tell me they remember when a flood extended all the way to the old
house, which used to sit on the south side of our front garden. I
can't really imagine that much water, and suspect those old-timers
might have the house confused with another one back in this holler, but
it's possible.
Besides the alligator swamp
bridge floating out
of place (already happened), the most-likely flood event we'd have to
deal with is evacuating the chickens from their current coop to the one
we usually use for broilers. During a break in the rain, our
flock was out foraging at the edge of the floodwaters, but they soon
settled back on their roosts to wait out the storm.
Even chicken-evacuation
is unlikely. Instead, we're hoping the floodwaters recede before
we run out of stockpiled fruit and library books, and before our chicken waterer customers get antsy.
Other than those three things, we're pretty much self-sufficient up on
our island.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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It looks as if some of the flooding is near the 100 year. Is that side a steep rise? I hope the golf cart is ok.
I looked at your flood dates, and I would expect the cluster of winter dates. It is the rainy season along the east coast, and where you are is elevated and always near the warm side of storms. What becomes snow events up here in NE are likely to at least start as rain events down there.
I was surprised though at the lack of August-September events. Tropical systems often rain out in the Tenn, Ky, WV, and VA areas. Do any of the long term local have tales about big fall events?
We've only got a bit of generator time left, so I'm hoping I'll hit everyone's questions. If I miss some, please forgive me!
Gerry --- We live up on a plateau that rises abruptly above the floodplain. That's the plateau cutoff you're seeing.
Mona --- Yep, it was my fault the golf cart was down there, so I'll be seriously in the doghouse if we can't get it going after the dunking....
J, The Cuckoo Marans are on the right --- I think you're looking at our Australorp rooster? Everyone's been doing just fine in the cold weather so far.
April 1977 flood made it to your barn. Water was about 3' deep on ground floor of red brick house at main road.
I have a photo somewhere of old barn across the road from your mailbox, water was a few feet up in it.