AS I WROTE
THIS, A WILDLIFE DISASTER OF BIBLICAL PORPORTIONS was playing out in Southeast
Arkansas.
My wife’s brother and his family, JD and
Sue Dunnahoe, live beside the Arkansas-Mississippi River Levee, at a location
almost even with the confluence of the Arkansas River and the mighty
Mississippi. Actually, they live on a low hill, which is the remains of the
river levee that was washed out in 1927. Just across the levee, the flood
waters now flow along the levee much higher than their rooftop. The sounds of
that rushing water is not a comforting sound to hear as they doze off each
night.
The levee, at that point, is 10 miles
from the river. Inside that levee, the dense forest abounds with wildlife.
Normally. But that was not a normal year. The flood that was occurring then has
happened few times before in my memory banks, and never in mid-winter.
Near the river itself, higher land occurs,
many low hilltops. As the water comes up, first flooding occurs along the
levee. Slowly, as the water rises, areas nearer the river are flooded.
Thousands of wild animals must make a
choice. They must go outside the levee, without much cover to protect them. Many
have already made that choice. JD tells of 25 deer in his yard when he came
home. Others have reported herds of 75 deer in their fields. While the deer are
the larger, more visible victims, rabbits, snakes and other small animals are
also faced with this life or death decision.
The remaining animals have made the other,
the seemingly more attractive choice, in the last few days. Move toward the river. Higher land, with
plenty of cover and food. Farther and farther away from the levee, and
survival.
The deadly choice.
During a previous flood many years ago, JD
put his boat into the floodwaters and traveled to the riverbank. He saw
hundreds of deer, rabbits, snakes and other wild animals, all crowded together
on the few dry hilltops near the river.
Later, JD walked up to the levee top. He
knew the river had crested, because the government man who follows the crest of
the Mississippi river was there. He was a nice enough guy, and he told JD all about
his job. He will chase the crest of the Mississippi river all the way to New
Orleans.
Flood stage of the river at that point is
around 37 feet. At some point soon after flood stage is reached, the river
begins to flood the top of those few high points along the river. The river was
then at 43 feet. Those thousands upon thousands of animals were dying, or already dead. The 10 mile swim
to the levee is impossible for them.
Now, it is up to the relatively few wild
animals who made the right choice, who went outside the levee, to repopulate
those beautiful, dense forests surrounding the confluence to those two mighty
rivers. It will take years. But they always succeed, during the time leading up
to the next great flood. I remember only two similar or greater floods, 1973
and 1993. All floods on the mighty Mississippi are based, for comparison, on
the greatest and most deadly of them all, 1927.
In my lifetime, these great floods seem to be occurring at around 20
year intervals. The wildlife seem to recover in a few years, giving an unknown
number of years to then prosper, followed by wholesale death and destruction
once more.
*******************
March 2,
2018 – Is it happening again this year? The levee in southwest Arkansas will
close tomorrow. This happens when a very
high crest is approaching. Flood stage
at Arkansas City will be reached tomorrow, 37 feet, and the river will continue
to rise. The high land along the river will be flooding in the next few days.
As you read this, those animals trapped there may very well be dying. Those who
made the deadly choice.
March 3,
2018 -
LATE NEWS
FLASH – I just talked JD. The River is over 37 feet today, above flood stage.
In 1973, he put his boat on the river and motored into the main river on a
hunting trip. Keep in mind, that was a year of one of the great floods. When he
reached the higher land by the river, there was still 40 acres or so along the
river that was not flooded. But the animals were so thick, he felt guilty about
hunting, so he put his gun away and went home. He thinks the water will have to
get well over 40 feet before that area is flooded.
I
asked him why the levee is now closed to travel.
“Well, one fear is that somebody from
Mississippi will come across and blow the Levee on this side, to relieve the
flooding over there.” JD is not one to get overly excited. “Personally, I think
it’s just a lot of people getting excited, and making much ado about nothing.”
So, I asked, “Do you think I may be one
of those excited people?”
He laughed. “But the deer are coming out on this side, though. I
have seven or eight in my yard right now. But they’re not coming out in big
herds yet, 70 or 100 in one bunch, like there will be soon.” He reported that
the levee has just had a couple of big landslides down around Arkansas City.
That does make people excited.
During the Greatest Flood, 1927, Barbara’s grandfather and other men
were sitting around, talking about the flood. One man said, “Well, that levee
won’t break. I’ll drank every drop of water that comes through that levee.”
Just then, a man ran up, hollering that the levee had broken, and the water is
on its way. Barbara’s grandfather jumped up, probably yelling, “Well, you
better get to drankin’!”
He outran the flood waters all the way to
McGehee, in his car, twenty miles. Then, he got out his row boat, and offered a
taxi service between McGehee and Watson. He never missed a chance to make a
little money.
So, nobody yet knows if the animals will
die. But the river is still coming on up.
We’ll know in a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment