These are pictures of the Overholser Reservoir in Oklahoma City in late fall 2007. This is the Canadian River.
This reservoir is seldom ever close to full. Normally it diverts its water to another holding tank off river called Lake Hefner. Once Hefner is full, then they will fill this one. When everything is full then the river flows unobstructed.
Here as you can see, the river is flowing through the diversion gate quite well.
This is the Canadian river below the damn. It is now 30 feet deep and flowing at, well, very fast.
Two young men died here. One in a car that plunged into the waters and another while jogging.
Normally, at this place you can walk across the river and not be Jesus. Try it now and you will meet him.
This a clip of the outflow. The next day, when I didn't take my camera, dumb, it was flowing over the whole length of the dam at a depth of two feet. The fence along the walk way next to the water was long gone, as were the light poles. The Canadian River drains western Oklahoma which doesn't normally get so much rain. But what is normal anymore anyway? Yes, this flows into the Mississippi..
2 comments:
One of my poorer choices as a young kid in high school involved
canoeing a river that was running well above flood stage.
Chippewa River..drains north central Wisconsin. Since it was very high, ripping through the
trees on either side, we thought we could make a 15 mile trip in a couple hours. We put in about 6PM
and scooted downstream. About dark, we heard a roar up ahead and remembered that a gas pipe line was being layed across the stream.
There was little we could do as we
were center river drifting about
10-15 miles an hour and as we approached the roaring in the dark
we could seen pilings and steel beams upright in the stream, which
disappeared over a cascade; vertical limestone cliffs lined the Chippewa in this area. We paddled furiously 'into the breach'
and went straight down into a churning black whirlpool. A few seconds later we popped up on either side of the canoe. The vortex had sucked off both my shoes, one sock, my billfold and my paddle was nowhere to be seen.
Our only hope seemed to be to stay with the vessel, so we grabbed ahold, tossed along at the
flood stage 15 mph, the roar of water along the base of the cliffs
adding to a mounting fear in the black night. Gradually by kicking
our feet we approached the west side, having traveled about two miles further. The canoe wedged against a boulder awash with powerful current at the base of a cliff. Totally exhausted from fighting the power of the torrent,
we looked up into the darkness.
After a five minute rest to get our breath back, we began scaling the cliff. I have never been so glad to be barefoot and mosquito-bitten and lost in the woods!!
..nor have I ever looked at a raging flooded river with anything but awe and respect for Mother Nature when she is unhappy....
[my kids love the story..gee, Dad,
you were so stupid..and the wife nods in agreement....:)
Good story. glad you're here to tell it.
Being a flatland dust-bowler I have always had respect for the danger of water. In this part of the country we can get the convection-thunderstorm-gully-washers that resemble the arroyo flash-floods of the Southwest and the long slow steady drenchers that cause normal floods.
Normally we welcome them all. But this last fall it just kept coming and coming and coming. As an old Nam vet with PTSD, I wanted very badly to crawl in my back yard and snipe at someone. My wife kept me locked away and safe until the monsoon was over.
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