This spring we saw not one but two major floods.
"In mid-April 2016, an upper-level low in the United States stalled and produced a major snowstorm in the Rocky Mountains, and record-breaking rain in and around Houston, Texas, resulting in severe flooding. It is described as the wettest April in the city on record. As the most widespread flood event there since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, it caused a state of emergency to be declared in nine counties." - Wikipedia
The first one started the night of April 18th. I went out to feed the horses that afternoon and there was an inch or so of water over the road which is normal after a heavy rain. I knew there was more rain on the way but had no idea how much.
Houston saw 16 inches of rain in under 12 hours. There were videos of a local stable where multiple horses had to be rescued from fast moving flood waters. Those videos were extremely difficult to watch and made me want to hug Sky. I called to check on him, the other horses, and cows. The family who live onsite assured me they were all fine just stuck due to the flooding.
Their pastures are beautiful but surrounded by water. There is also only one road into the area and it is the first thing that floods. The river crested at fifteen and a half feet. I wasn't able to make it out to Sky for seven days. The sane part of me knows he was completely fine and well taken care of for those seven days but horse-mom part of me was panicking the entire time.
The next flood came May 27th barely five weeks after the previous flood. The pastures were in the process of being cleaned and fences mended. This time as soon as I heard we were going to be getting a lot of rain I asked a friend if Sky could stay at her place for a bit. We hauled him out of there just as it started to rain.
By the next morning the road to his pasture was completely impassible again. I kept in touch with the family as the waters rose higher and higher. With the first flood the horses and cows had plenty of dry land but this time they ended up with only a small area under the home. The water rose to nineteen feet this time. The family kept busy feeding and trying to keep the cows from wandering into the rushing water. After several days the water was low enough to pull the other two horses and all the cows to a temporary pasture.
The damage caused by this flood was even worse than the last. All sorts of debris had been scattered across the pastures, nearly every fence had been washed away, and there were two large sinkholes on the property. It looked like a disaster area because that's exactly what it was. But thankfully aside from being a bit water logged everyone was okay.
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