I Remember...

Not too long ago, a neighbour commented that I am always watching water levels and comment quite frequently on them in my Blog. 

That person was quite correct and, as you will see, I do that for a very good reason!

Watching and reporting rising water levels, particularly during the Spring freshet time of the year is important because of the possibility of damages that can occur from flooding. I became acutely aware of the dangers of flooding on April 19, 2013, when our road washed out.

That happened during a freshet, but in reality, it can happen anytime that there’s favourable climate conditions. Even during summer vacation periods when cottage populations peak.

Adding to the “anytime”, we now have Global Warming and Climate Change issues with unpredictable weather to worry about!

A washed out road isn’t nice! It can be costly to repair and it completely cuts you off from the rest of the world until it’s fixed. 

The “cutting off” is potentially life threatening because service vehicles, such as fire trucks and ambulances cannot get into our home. Nor can we get out to get food or medical assistance if needed.

Helicopter rescues are not readily available in our area.

This situation, which we didn’t have before, has been created by a culvert replacement project gone very bad. To compound the problem, we have since discovered that the replacement culvert is sized to pass about one half of the water that the old removed culvert could pass. 

That means that waters that don’t go through the culvert go over a roadway that has an erodible surface. It can wash out as shown in the picture above.

As of this writing, this nasty situation, that wasn’t in our lives before,  shows no sign of correction for the foreseeable future.

We now face increased chances that we may not be able to get help when an emergency occurs. 

We now have a “Plan B” to evacuate our home if conditions ever worsen to the point that we feel threatened.

Something we, especially as seniors, should not have to do - particularly because of mistakes made by the many people who were involved throughout the project. 

So, until this nasty situation is corrected, I will watch water levels and comment on them in my Blog, particularly during Spring freshets.

Hopefully my reporting will be beneficial to someone!