Saturday, April 12, 2008

Mountain View, Arkansas' Severe Weather Season


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In the span of three months, Mountain View has had a very bad time. In February there was the F3 tornado that flatened homes to the foundation and tore a part of the hospital out. Right in front of this tornado and right after it, there were record snow fall amounts. March 18-19 saw a 100 year flood. Jack's fishing resort on the White River was flooded several feet into its ground level. The restaurant and the rooms for rent were totaled and because they had no flood insurance, the community had to pitch in for the rebuild. (it needed it anyway IMHO) There are videos here of cabins floating down the middle of the White. Last week didn't bring this area tornados like predicted, but it did bring almost 5" of rain to the already saturated ground. Gail reports that this flood was worse than the one last month. The work done on Jack's resort was all for naught. Our neighbors and residents in the S. Sylamore Creek hollow lost their dogs, two horses, tool boxes and again, the picnic table. The water rose to their front steps. The tree below the Big Cabin (where we walked in to fish) is gone. The remaining soil is loose sand and silt and will quickly erode away - all the way to the rock bluff that once was 50+ ft from the creek. To compound the problems in our hollow, the front road access AND the back road access are completely washed out. The telephone lines are down and the water line to the cabins is kaput for the moment. The fence on our property has been knocked down by the high waters.

I neglected to mark it in the picture above, but the flood waters filled everything you see b/w the purple lines. (we know where NOT to build!)

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