Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Mighty Red River

This is a scene from the Barkus and Meoux Parade.  Note the rose sculptures.
This is a view from the opposite direction at the parade. 
This is what the area looked like yesterday.  You can see the steps are completely submerged.  The river is flowing amazingly fast.  
You may remember this photo that we took a couple of months ago.
It will be a long time before we can take the boys walking in this area again.
   The Red River serves as the divider between Shreveport and Bossier City.  It flows east from the Texas panhandle and acts as a border between Texas and Oklahoma.  It turns south near Fulton, Arkansas and flows into Louisiana.  It empties into the Atchafalaya River.  The Red River is 1,360 miles long and has a mean flow of 57,000 cubic feet per second at the mouth.  With all of the recent rains in the south, our mighty Red is spilling over its banks. 

   The official flood stage is 30 feet and when we took these photos Tuesday, it is 32.66 feet.  Officials expect it to crest on Friday at 34 feet.  This is the first time it has been above 30 feet since 1990.  People are catching catfish in what are normally parking lots!  Barricades have been erected to prevent residents from getting too close to the overflow.  The Red River claims lives when it is at its normal level because it has such a fast-moving current.  A number of areas have been evacuated and the levees are being closely monitored.

17 comments :

  1. You can catch fishies on parking lots... well, I like fish, but that sounds scary... I hope your Red River goes back to normal soon...
    easy rider

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  2. Sorry for your walking area being flooded, but I like seeing the Big Red flowing!!!

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  3. WOW that is a crazy flood!!!! People being evacuated and everything?! Wow!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  4. OMD....We were so concentrated on the Texas flooding, we didn't realize it was that bad in Louisiana...hope things calm down soon!!

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  5. Oh dog...that is unbelievable how much it has overflowed its banks. Ya'all better be safe around those waters especially if the waters move so quickly. Hmmm, but catching catfish in a parking lot sounds pretty interesting...and tasty. When's the fish fry?
    Oz

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  6. Flooding is an amazing thing to witness, and so very dangerous too.

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  7. Wow, that is amazing, and scary! Be safe, dear ones.

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  8. OMD OMD we can not BELIEVE that the Red River is so HIGH.... And we can TELL why they call it RED... for it surely IS...
    OH MY.... that is just awful.... we hope it does not do too much damage...butt are sure it will. Floods are terrible things...

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  9. Wow, that's some serious flooding!!!
    Loves and licky kisses
    Princess Leah xxx

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  10. Yep...thats what a lot of Oklahoma and Texas looked like last week...the river cresed over the lake texhoma dam at 29 feet.....we will be a mosquito farm this summer!

    The Mad Scots

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  11. I guess all our floodin are catchin up to ya now.

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  12. Oh boy, I hope it doesn't get any worse.

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