A River Floods
looking downstream from donnaha bridge. Christine Rucker Photos
I heard it raining Sunday night here in Winston-Salem, a sweet, soothing sound as I fell asleep with no thought of the river. But overnight the river flooded its banks and those of you who live on the river woke up to a watery landscape. Matthew Perry emailed Christine and me from his home by the river in East Bend. “I hope you are both out looking at the flooded river,” he wrote. “The levels are higher than they were during hurricanes Jean & Ivan in 2004.” He sent photos, too, of his flooded yard and of outbuildings half submerged in muddy water. I’ve heard stories of the river rising up and washing out bridges and entire tobacco crops, of swirling water carrying away sheds and cars. I made it out to Donnaha Park by noon Monday and had a hard time figuring out where the riverbank I knew had been. People kept pulling up to stare at the muddy water. Wendell Bennett was there with his wife and 6-year-old son who was too scared to get out of the car. “You see that line of trees,” Bennett said, pointing to a stand of trees at least 100 yards away across open water. “That’s where the bank is.
donnaha park underwater. Yadkin river rose 8 ft. flooding picnic shelter and rising half way up this basketball goal.
” The picnic shelter, the road, the path leading down to the riverbank, they were all flooded. Ahead was the river – eight feet above its normal level and mightier than ever.
flooded muddy river; reminds me of that chocolate drink "yoo-hoo"
I had my stepson, Jackson, and his buddy Joe with me, and kept them close. I knew if they started playing around and got caught up in the current there was no way I could reach them. I saw later that two fools had jumped from the N.C. 67 bridge for the thrill. Both were rescued, one a quarter of a mile down river hanging to a tree, swept there by that sweet, soothing rain from Sunday night.
Phoebe
view from bridge looking south. overlooking flooded Donnaha Park.
Yadkinriverstory's Blog 