Yesterday the rains came, completely submerging Northgate Park for a few hours until the water receded.
Kudos to our stormwater folks here in Durham; the fact that the water drained so quickly shows that all of their hard work and planning has paid off.
It was quite a sight to behold, and for a while I was thinking that they should invite the beavers over from the Ellerbe Creek Preserve and have them dam everything up. It would be lots of fun having a 17-acre lake or swamp only two blocks from the house.
Ellerbe Creek was raging; it was almost like being on the Haw River. I planned on getting my canoe out, until I saw a wicked current that could have sucked me under the bridge and spat me out on the other side. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Back home, I had to pat myself on the back because the overflow from our pond was doing just what it was supposed to do.
I watched the water as it trickled down the side of our yard, into the driveway and down into the street.
All the swales in the backyard were completely swollen, and the bog we built for water overflow actually looked like a bog.
I shudder to think what could have happened to our basement yesterday had we not created the bioretention area in the backyard. In this era of climate destabilization, living a quarter of a mile from a floodplain tops my worry list.
I watched as water gushed down our street. Such a waste, I thought. I wish there was some way I could catch and store it. Who knows when we’ll have another drought…
