My wife found this photo on the internet. It's an example of how moving water has power that is only equaled by the most powerful of hydraulic machines. The guardrail, which was attached to a post, was twisted like a rubber band when the water spun the post around the attachment point.
This is the destruction humans faced when the flood waters on the Guadalupe tore through the flood basin. Such force doesn't leave much, when people are caught in the flood. Remains may never be found since there may not be any to be found.
God rest their souls.
I was part of the SAR response to the Big Thompson Flood in 1976. Unless you see the aftermath firsthand of a major flash flood it's almost impossible to grasp the power of water....
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine being caught in such a flood. I experienced a slight current while diving in the Gulf, and it was exhausting to make it back to the boat.
DeleteAnd water is NOT compressible... It will always win!
ReplyDeleteAnd it did this time.
DeleteThe power of water, twisting the metal like that, unbelievable but believable. Any water damaged item you've seen over your work-life and home-life comparable to it? Worse? Thanks. I always learn something here.
ReplyDeleteDave Drake
I was in charge of a project that repaired a section of highway destroyed by a freak flood caused by a 13 inch rain over an isolated area. The existing drainage was four 48 inch concrete pipes with a large reinforced concrete headwall on the end. The force of the water through the pipes floated the end sections of the pipes, and the headwall five feet, which allowed the scour to remove most of over one hundred feet of one lane, and all the soil to a depth of over thirty feet.
DeleteIt was an event no engineer could envision when they designed the original section of highway about a half century before. A double barrel of 7 x 7 reinforced concrete box culverts is what we used to replace the original pipes.
Man, never underestimate the force of the water.
DeleteDave Drake
Add in the "active streambed" and floods cause things to disappear, forever.
ReplyDeleteVideos of the areas show huge piles of crushed stone in pile where the flood waters caused a buildup. Some might be found, when the channel is cleared, but some may forever be buried under the riverbed.
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