The Flood of May 2015

Been missing from my blog,
been behind on orders once again
we had company and with the dentist and other
events I have some catching up to do

This post is picture heavy and before you read on,
We are fine
we set high enough not to be directly affected by the flood
but apparently not high enough for Mother Nature's
heavy and what seemed like never ending rains to create us
heartache none the less with a few leaks,
and cutting off my source to go shop
*had to insert some humor in all of this*

In all honesty my heart is breaking for the many that have
lost so much, the photos online of homes in water
around the lake, and those downstream affected from the
release of water as well as the flooding they had already
 seen from rains
My prayers go out to those folks

What a Month of May we experienced at Lake Texoma

Many places had flooding, Heavy flooding in Texas where

lives were lost, just all so sad!

We live on the Oklahoma side of Lake Texoma

There are four towns that were submerged when they built this lake

you can read about them Here

Source

Denison Dam and Lake Texoma were authorized for construction by the Flood Control Act approved June 28, 1938, (Public Law 75-791) for flood control and generation of hydroelectric power. The dam, spillway, and outlet works were started in August 1939 and completed in February 1944. At that time, Denison Dam was the largest rolled, earthfilled dam in the United States. The project was put into operation for flood control in January 1944. The first hydroelectric turbine was placed in operation in March 1945, while a second unit became operational in September 1949. The town of Woodville, Oklahoma was submerged by the lake. The site was later exposed by a severe drought in 2011.^[5] Most of the town of Aylesworth was submerged by the construction of the lake

The lake was constructed during WWII. North of Gainesville Camp Howze was constructed for military training. German prisoners were sent there. Some were used to clear cut the timber below the flood line for Lake Texoma. The lake was pristine until flood waters rose above the clear cut line in 1957.

I believe it is safe to say our lake now Covers many more acres

Then it normally does, the devastation to personal property as

well as all businesses around the lake is overwhelming

This is a bridge not far from us

The following photos are during the flood

There are pages as well as groups on Facebook 

Lake Texoma Memories

most of the photos I am using are from those pages

many I do not have personal names on that shared them

But I am giving credit to the group for their use

The Water rose fast

Happy to report it is receding but will not go down near as 

quickly as it rose, it will take months for many to recover

Below is The Roosevelt Memorial bridge on Hwy 70 in Oklahoma

A normal photo of how it looks

Past the bridge where you see the bank lines 

the causeway goes down the road to camp areas

The water took over that end of the causeway

and continued to rise until it forced the bridge to be closed

May 29th

They are reporting that it could possibly reopen as soon as the beginning 

of this next week, if it passes inspection?

*I take this road to go to Lowe's for materials*

will be so happy when they reopen it

My building is coming along all walls are hung

~I will post on it and show the progress later~

I am sharing various photos taken around the lake 

Photo taken by my Daughter in Law when they were down this last week

You have seen me share this picture on my blog before

it is one of my favorite places to go see the sunset

This is a marina down the road from us

The next photo is when it started rising

where you see the light post just to the left side is where

I normally perch at to see the beauty above

And you can see in the photo below that the waters just kept coming up

Will be glad when things are normal again, we love to go eat at the cafe

more pictures by my daughter in law

The campgrounds down from us 

has a pavilion this was taken on May 27th 

may 28th

This is a road to the owners home of the marina pictured above
Hubby and our neighbor went down fishing
And the photo below is the same road only
the gates and signs are under water

May 29th the Corp was reporting our lake had risen a 

total off 33 feet

Various photos of properties that sustained major flooding
this is a small fraction of structures that have flooded
*so many are in water*
sad thing is these were before the final stage of flooding
many that owned mobile homes even paid a price to have
their home pulled to higher ground
Once the waters go down they will move their homes back

We have broke a record on flooding
One I hope we do not break again

My intentions were to share so much more with you
but time has gotten away from me
I am now back to creating
Remember these folks in your prayers
The recovery will be a long and costly one

Brenda