Flood Days

My hardwood mulch is growing a mushroom forest. Gray Inkcaps, lots of them. Four days of rain will do that for you. Since last Thursday more than three inches has fallen on the homestead courtesy of decaying tropical systems from Mexico and a low pressure ridge from the northwest. Every river I can name all around me is running full and the local lakes are benefitting. I hope this spasm of wet weather is a portent of better things to come. Blanco county, however, is in the grip of a drought that started in 2022 and it looks to be worse than the one we endured in 2011-2015.

Meanwhile, news from the Guadalupe River, from Center Point, Comfort, Kerrville, and Hunt, continues to be bad as search and rescue teams scour the banks looking for victims while hoping to find survivors. The death toll, unfortunately, continues to rise. The new river landscape of uprooted trees, broken vehicles, and broken homes is making the task exceedingly difficult, and my hat is off to the weary people doing this hard, dirty work that must feel never ending.

Canyon Lake meanwhile is back to last year's level at a little over 60% full. I don’t suspect, however, many people will be celebrating given the cost of all that water in human life and property. It’s worth noting, however, that without the lake that wall of water would have hit New Braunfels, and given the issues they had with the same rain event, it’s a small thing for which we can be thankful, although in no way does that ameliorate any of the suffering we all continue to feel for those we lost in the flood.