River Report: Flood Stage

On Thursday afternoon I was turning onto Main Street when I took this photo. When I came by half an hour later the sign said 102.

The river was over 14 feet by then and still rising. I walked down again to get some more shots.

On Friday morning at 9:15 the river level was 15.21 feet, over flood stage. When I went out to take a look I found water in the pasture below our house.

It was bank full down by the river, and the outlet ditch was full.

The ditch was still flowing; the water is still rising.

I found these guys jammed up against the overflow, and I remembered what Jeremiah was telling me.

He says that Jake, his friend Adrian's dad, likes to fish a certain spot on the river when it's rising. It's an outlet ditch like this one--probably bigger--and fish will back in there in high water. Jake caught a five pound smallmouth there just a few days ago. I think I could have caught these guys with my hands. If they had been smallmouth I would have tried.

I walked back the other way and found standing water for the length of the pasture.

Down there the river had come right up over the bank.

There was some good news, though. The official forecast now is for the river to crest somewhere just over 16 feet by Monday or Tuesday. That's down almost two feet from the earlier prediction.

So it looks like this Spring we'll just get our feet wet.