After the Flash Flood Day 4

Bug sits are helping me cope with the damage. More on that later, when I am able to deal with it. Please view full screen for the best viewing.

00:01:35

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Uh Oh

Washed-out shoulder on Route 16.

Back when the septic engineer was testing the soil for the new septic system, they were also paving Route 16 here in Barton. They did a great job and even put in new (although very narrow) shoulders). Then we had the torrential rains in early August that caused our flash flood. On the same walk that John and I took when we found the drowning worm, we also walked down our road frontage and found that the shoulder had washed out in several places.

I really should have called the town clerk and told her. If a car had to leave the road because of moose, bear or deer being out there, they could lose an axle or something in those holes. Now that it is winter, the holes will only grow bigger. I guess I'll call in the spring.

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The Invasive Drowning Earthworm

The earthworm in the flood-swollen brook.

The day after the flash flood, John and I walked around the fields and brooks to view the damage. We came upon this earthworm drowning in the brook. John picked it up and put it in the nearby mud, where it quickly crawled away (see photo below).

After we had done our good deed, we got to talking about worms and remembered the new research that says that worms are invasive to North American forests. They were introduced here from Asia and Europe. In the forests where they live, they eat the forest floor that is created by falling leaves and trees. "In forests of the glaciated Northeast, earthworms are now considered an invasive pest. " (source: Darwin Only Knew Half the Story on Earthworms by Kent McFarland. April 22, 2010, Northern Woodlands Magazine. There were exactly no earthworms here 12,000 years ago. Now there are at least 15 Asian and European species of worms here. McFarland writes, "What’s happening is that worms are eating fallen leaves that otherwise would turn into the spongy, nutrient-rich layer of material known as “duff.” Native forest plants are sustained by this leaf litter as are a whole host of fungi, bacteria and other detritivores." I strongly suggest that you click the link above and read this article.

The rescued worm crawls away.

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The Night of the Flash Flood

The washed out lower driveway near the apple orchards.

The new septic system was completed the week of July 20. Every day after that, John graded the leach field by tractor and by hand. I helped a bit with removing rocks — tons of rocks — from the ground, to buckets, to the pay loader on the tractor. It was hot and dry in the sun, yet John continued every day, all day long. And finally, on August 5, the grading and seeding was finished.

Late on August 5 the thunder and rain came. It was falling at the rate of inches per hour and it continued for hours. As the rain hit the roof, it was so loud you had to yell so that others could hear you. I went to bed about midnight because the sound of storms relaxes me. John stayed up because he was worried about the brooks from the mountain overflowing and about his newly seeded leach field.

I woke at 1 AM to the sound of the tractor in the night. Opening the window and looking out, I heard the roar of water all around the house. I grabbed a sweatshirt and went downstairs to see what I could do to help. The roar was deafening outside. I could see the lights reflecting in water all about me and I knew immediately what had happened: a flash flood from the brooks on the mountain. I knew that John was working hard to block the water as it roared down from behind the house, around the barn, through the orchard's edge and down the driveway. But there was nothing I could do to help. Later, when John was done, he told me he had dammed an old, broken culvert and made a levee to redirect the water behind the house. The kids told me the basement was totally flooded (but that was okay, because the furnace and water heaters are on blocks because this has happened before. The basement would drain by itself.).

The next morning, I went out with the camera to view the damage. The lower driveway was washed out. The back meadow had been flooded, one brook had cut new banks and undercut old banks. One old culvert that had not been replaced yet had been pulled out of the ground. The orchard was fine, the driveway could be graded. More sections of the ancient, cast iron furnace had been exposed by the rushing water. But the leach field! It was destroyed. There was erosion, gullies, and all the seed had washed away. It would have to be done all over again. Weeks of hot, hard work had been lost!

A temporary earthen dam to stop the water from running into the house.
This is where the old culvert had been torn out of the ground by the flash flood.

Raccoon and cat tracks in the mud the day after the flood.

The old culvert that was torn out of the ground from under the back road.

The lower, washed out, driveway near the apple orchard.

The washed out lower driveway. The new culvert that the town put in held up well and did its job.

The destroyed leach field.
John completed the work, again, and it is now lush with thick meadow grasses.
John re-buried the cast iron furnace pieces
because they were simply too large and embedded to retrieve.
Future owners of the property in the next century can find and recycle them.

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