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Saturday, January 4, 2014

Where’s Noah When You Need Him?

We’ve had an unusual amount of rain here at Thurmond Lake.  Water levels have been approaching historic highs and the Savannah River is much higher than it normally is this time of year.

As a result, Marti and I where sent out to look over all the campgrounds and boat ramps on the South Carolina side of Thurmond Lake while Jim, another volunteer, checked the Georgia side of the lake.

The fear was with the water levels so high, the concrete lanes of the boat ramps would be so submerged that it would make launching and recovering boats too dangerous, the boaters might drive off the ramps and get in serious trouble.

Also, some of the COE docks were submerged.  All these sites needed to be inspected for damage and closed off until the water level subsides.

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We drove into all the campgrounds, flooding even back from the lake occurred.

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We taped off many of the ramps, the water level was so high, the concrete lanes were way under and invisible.

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We checked a few boat ramps that had been closed off the day before.  Some boaters just tore down the tape and used the closed ramps anyway, so we had to re-tape the ramps.

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At the Thurmond Dam, the COE was letting out large amounts of water to help lower the lake levels.  It caused large, turbulent waves and eddies below the dam.

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A couple of the boat ramps were okay, so we left them open as they could be safely used.

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At one ramp we encountered some duck hunters who had given up for the day and pulled their boat out of the water.  I talked with them and they disgustedly said they had been out since early morning and hadn’t seen a single duck.

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Guess what came waddling up the boat ramp right behind them.

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Hunters: 0  Ducks: 1  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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19 comments:

  1. Bwahhahaaa that is one Good Luck Duck!

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    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
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  2. That is too funny. Gotta love a duck. Maybe we need to bring Jim's boat out to you guys. If it keeps raining you may need it.

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  3. Great timing for the duck! When we were there last spring, I wondered if a few of those sites would ever get underwater. Guess they do!

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  4. What's a domestic duck doing there anyway?

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  5. Hooray for the Duck. Looks like things are quite Duckie there at Strom. Just make sure you keep all your ducks in a row if the water gets any higher.

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  6. stay dry!! as for the ducks?..good for him!!!

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  7. Pretty funny, although I don't know if it's legal to hunt Muscovy Ducks.

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  8. That was one lucky ducky! Glad the duck hunters got shut-out!

    Sure is a lot of water in that lake. Wow!

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  9. Those water levels are absolutely amazing!!!

    When we were there in July 2012, all the sites were on a 10 to 15 ft cliff the water was so low. Nice to see it has come back up, but enough is enough!!

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  10. Wow! Didn't realize there was so much rains up there. Shoulda figured by the weather forecasts :-) Good thing they weren't making you go pin hunting out there in the water!

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  11. You don't suppose the water levels are high because all that water has been rolling off that Ducks back do ya.......

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  12. That is a lot of flooding, I think I would just stay off the water.

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  13. I guess the duck knew he was safe enough by then.

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  14. Funny, we've been seeing a lot of ducks on the water right outside our window the last few days. Lucky ducks. . . . and unlucky hunters!

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