Our Pond During Heavy Downpour

It has been an extremely unusual two days on the farm.  Over the past 24 hours we have received nearly 9 inches of rain. Our farm is located at the top of a large hill which is one of the highest points in the state of Indiana, so we were not experiencing any flooding near our house.

Early this morning we attempted to drive to Bloomington to pick up cat food and other essential items from Sam’s Club.  As we headed down the hill, we got about a 1/2 mile south of our house and found the road littered with large chunks of stone which had been washed out of the large drainage ditch along side the road.  We finally made it to the bottom of the hill and found the Southbound lane of Indiana highway 67 closed by a mud slide.  We turned around and headed back North in an attempt to do our shopping in Indianapolis.  We only got to Mooresville before heavy rains started to fall again.  Feeling it was too risky to proceed to Indianapolis we headed back to our home to wait out the storms.  In the hour and a half we were gone, we had received an additional 3 inches of rain!

Spillway Overflowing

The final insult came when I headed to the basement to get a screw driver,  only to find that we had about an inch of water in the basement.    This was not supposed to be possible since the floor of our basement sits above our pond.  Unfortunately, our spillway could not handle the high volume of water flowing into our pond,  so the surface of the pond had risen over the top of the drainage tile from our basement floor drains.  Fortunately, most of the things in our basement which could be damaged by water were already on shelving or in water proof containers.  Once the weather subsides I’ll need to deepen the spillway so that we can avoid this problem in the future.  We have never seen this much rain in such a short period.  Our pond had not been this high during the 15 years we have lived here.

This has been a very unusual spring.  It started with unseasonably  cool weather in April and May with an immediate jump into the 90s this week.  Then last night this unbelievable quantity of rain.

I am listening to the scanner and have never heard it so active.  There are peopled stranded on the roads trying to get home.  There are others, trying to get out of their homes because they are about to be flooded.  Several dams are overflowing and at risk of breaking.  Hopefully the rains will subside soon before the whole area turns into a disaster zone.

Fred