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.

13 Comments

  1. Steve Skinner

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

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

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

  3. 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.

    • 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.

  4. 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.

    • 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.

  5. beautiful composition with the waterfall

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

    • 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.

  6. 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. :-)