Better Pictures of the 2013 Yucatan Flood

All photos are courtesy of Randy Roland, neighbor and friend. Most of the following pictures were taken around 10:00 AM and show some differences from the 5:00 AM ones that I took.

Once again we start close to home at the intersection where the old Yucatan Supper Club once operated. Water has never stood in the area shown despite prior floods and heavy rains.

Creamery Drive was still under five hours after first light. The new bridge held up well but the water simply went over the road in front and behind. It shows man’s limitations in dealing with the weather in a rather pointed fashion.

It is impressive how a field can so quickly turn into something looking like a river. The pictures could easily pass for a river passing through a rural area. Instead, that’s a corn field under all that water.

Nice pond and lake, right? That’s a pasture on the left and a field on the right.

Randy got lucky and got some very nice lighting courtesy of the sun trying to burn through the clouds. It is hard to tell, but the above right photo is of the convergence of the Riceford and South Branch of the Root River. The trees mark the triangle of land normally above water where the two streams meet.

The Redwing Blackbirds were not happy with the situation. While they complain all the time, there was something a bit more frantic about their calls that morning. They nest in low plants along marshy areas so I suspect there were a lot of nests lost. As hard as flooding is on humans, it tends to be much harder on wildlife.

Traveling up County 4 revealed Yucatan Road almost completely underwater. Again a new bridge stands proud – and useless for the moment.

Of course nothing can resist a once in a century flooding, even if it is the second time in thirteen years. Standing water was another problem and every low spot turned into a small pond. Even the local cemetery was not immune.

With the basement destroyed by the 2000 flood, this house now sits on a concrete pad. I still haven’t heard how it fared but that looks pretty surrounded to me.

I noticed the horses had found the highest ground they could and so did Randy. Not the best picture, but it is another good example of how animals react to flooding.

Land for sale – CHEAP! Gallows humor is how you get through things like this.

The water got higher than I expected at the town hall. Even the new shed build on raised ground didn’t escape the waters.

That’s looking in the window of the town hall. If you look carefully, you can see firewood for the gigantic stove floating inside.

Destruction can be beautiful as this picture shows. What comes after it isn’t so pretty, though.

This shot reminded me of the chocolate river in Willy Wonka. Normally this is a beautifully maintained runoff ditch.

Again I’m struck by how much this resembles the backwaters of the Mississippi River. These were taken on the excursion after Noon.

 

Heading toward Houston revealed even more damage and Swedes Bottom Road was covered in water.

These photographs were taken the same place I took the first video in the post here. Far too many roads were impassable that day and some still are weeks later.

The amazing power of water to carve through land is on display in these final two pictures. That wraps up the post and I'll be writing at least one more.