Memorial Day Weekend Floods
The Memorial Day Weekend floods had tragic results in Texas. Bastrop had it’s share of weather disaster with the Colorado River flooding and a dam breaking on small lake in Bastrop State Park. We were fortunate not to sustain any damage at Little Piney. and as new property owners, to find out quickly what happens when it floods out here. Our house and barns were high and dry and drainage on the property worked as it should, flowing across a field at low points to pour into the creek that runs along our property line.
This photo shows an area washed out by water flowing toward a steep ravine and the creek.
The creek-fed lake at the back of Little Piney overflowed its banks. That’s one of our nest boxes toward the back, and wildflowers standing in muddy brown water at the front. The good news is an abandoned half-submerged eye-sore of a boat has vanished. Also, that a possible building site we have staked out near the lake did not flood.
Now that the water has resided, a three inch layer of gray sticky silt covers the shore and clings to your boot soles as you step. Raccoon prints are as precise as the hands cast in cement on Hollywood Boulevard. Deer’s hooves, however, cut through to the sand leaving exaggerated reindeer-sized holes. Most of the creatures seem to be staying on higher ground. Even the turtles have vanished except for two we found drying out on higher ground.
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A pond at Little Piney up near the house usually doesn’t hold water because of its sandy bottom. This week it is full and occupied by at least one turtle.
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We are waterlogged and muddy out here at Little Piney, but grateful. Fortunately, we have plenty of high ground that stays safe, and previous owners built the house and barns in the right places.
Not everyone was so fortunate. Our hearts go out to the Central Texas families whose homes were flooded or lost this weekend, and especially to those who lost loved ones.