Flooding at Bull Hole

by Earl on February 6, 2010

in Photography

Flood at Dam

Cooleemee River Park Dam - Flooded

Ran and snow runoff makes a big difference on the river. The photo above was today at flood stage and the photo below is how it normally looks.

Normal Conditions at Dam

Cooleemee River Park Dam - Normal

Taking a short break from my family room series of photos:

With the recent heavy rains, melting snow and flood warnings I had to make a short visit to Cooleemee River Park (Bull Hole) this morning to check on the status of the river and dam. The water level was the highest I’ve seen it since I’ve been photographing this site.

Flooded River Beach

Flooded Sandy River Beach

Cooleemee River Flood

Looking down across the dam

The river sand beach is mostly beneath water and walls I often walk and photograph are now barely seen beneath raging waters. You can see photos of these walls that were today under water here and here.

I also shot the short 1 minute video segment below using a Flip Video giving a sense of the massive energy of the pounding water. Double-click on the image below to watch.


Let me know if you have any problems with the above Apple Quicktime Player Video.

I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a visit to Bull Hole this weekend, be sure and read Paul’s impressions.

{ 1 trackback }

A good day : Paul Lester Photography
February 7, 2010 at 10:17 pm

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Steve Skinner February 6, 2010 at 7:19 pm

I think there are few things more dramatic than raging water.

[ Reply to this comment ]

2 Earl February 6, 2010 at 9:18 pm

I would certainly have to agree with you!

[ Reply to this comment ]

3 Yvonne February 6, 2010 at 11:40 pm

Love the power of the water! The second photo is my favorite.

[ Reply to this comment ]

4 Earl February 7, 2010 at 4:07 pm

The second photo was made this last summer in much dryer times. Most of the riverbed rock was completely covered by rushing water yesterday.

[ Reply to this comment ]

5 Don February 7, 2010 at 12:09 pm

A fine series showing us the dirt-laden runoff and how powerful it looks. I especially liked the contrast with the normal flowing river. Fine shots.

[ Reply to this comment ]

6 Earl February 7, 2010 at 4:09 pm

Don, thanks. I felt I needed to show a “before photo” so viewers could have an idea what the rushing water was covering and how much of it there was.

[ Reply to this comment ]

7 Ove February 8, 2010 at 2:53 am

Hm, I guess there will be lots of this in while, here to… I really enjoy following what’s going on your side of our hemisphere. This is so powerful that you really have to sit down and captivate it slowly. I’d love to see this live but has to get too far North to experience it. This was a really good photo reportage, Earl! Very modern too, using video and all.

[ Reply to this comment ]

8 Earl Moore February 9, 2010 at 12:02 am

Ove, thanks. The sound and movement were key part to fully express the energy this roaring river had. I felt in this case a video gave a more complete expression.

[ Reply to this comment ]

9 yz February 8, 2010 at 4:24 am

beautiful composition with the waterfall

(my firefox 3.x under win 7 just can’t install the extension to see the video, dunno why)

[ Reply to this comment ]

10 Earl Moore February 9, 2010 at 12:03 am

Sorry you could not view the video. I know others have been able to view it with Firefox but I do not know if they were using Win 7.

[ Reply to this comment ]

11 Paul February 8, 2010 at 7:33 am

I saw it for myself and it was, indeed, impressive. Too bad that I missed you by a scant 24 hours! Maybe next time! I have the feeling that I will run into you there one day. :-)

[ Reply to this comment ]

12 Earl Moore February 9, 2010 at 12:04 am

For sure one day our paths will cross there! :-)

[ Reply to this comment ]

Leave a Comment

You can use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>