Fighting the Flood

Well… when it rains it pours I guess. Strike that. When it rains over 12 inches in under 2 days in surrounding areas, well then that really can cause problems for the river that runs through Franklin where I live. The river is the same Blackwater River that flooded after Hurricane Dennis and Floyd did a tag-team number on our area back in 99.’ They were calling that flood a hundred year flood, because it had been that long since Franklin has seen that much water. Sure the river may flood it’s banks now and again, but that’s never been a problem. But, wow! Two major floods in less than a decade. That doesn’t bode too well for the peace of mind of my fellow Franklinians nor myself. 

My house caught it back in 99’ but thankfully this time we were spared. The big difference this time is that we knew it was coming. It seems that we’ve learned some valuable lessons about our forecasting of the Blackwater river’s level and how other areas rainfall can quickly contribute to some of our problems. In addition, our town’s drainage system was totally refurbished, etc, etc. Last time… we had no warning. I mean really… nothing. I think there may have been one or two flash flood warnings for those right on the river, but that was it. My wife and I went to bed that night never expecting to wake up in a flood.

That night/early morning still seems like a dream to me. We had brought the dog in for the night because of the weather and he faithfully slept at the foot of our bed on the floor. Well, at about 4am I was awakened by what sounded like my dog drinking/lapping up some water. In my half-awaken state I thought he was in the bathroom drinking from the toilet, but after calling to him, I was quickly surprised to see him right next to me walking around confused in 4 inches of water in my bedroom. Yep, it was that quiet creeping into our house. 

I remember looking out into my backyard and seeing the bedroom light shine off of the 3 ½’ deep water in my backyard. My AC unit was still churning, tho it was nearly submerged. And it wasn’t even a Trane. J After my wife got shocked by walking into the spare bedroom to pack up some clothes and my dog got shocked entering into the Kitchen I quickly killed the power to the house and we splashed outside to see some National Guard folk evacuating people. My Grand Am was in deep water, but the Jeep sat up high enough that after a brief prayer, she started up gurgling from the tail pipe and we drove to higher ground. And w/the help of our Church, FEMA and of course friends and family we were fully recovered after a couple of months. 

This time, the swamp and tributaries that got us last time weren’t as affected so we stayed high and dry. My mill still got wet, but we built up a dike and just kept right on making paper (International Paper). We don’t have any sewage right now (Franklin Water Flooded) so it’s porta-potties galore (ewww....) but we’re getting by. Here’s a couple of pics me and my buddy got today. 

Here's a couple pics of Downtown Franklin taken from one of our Recovery Boilers.

 

 

 Here's a couple photos of our dike/damn whatever you want to call it.