Little River Flooding at the TRWA Bluebell Trail at Around 2:15pm, January 9, 2024
We have had so many inquiries about the status of the Townsend River Walk & Arboretum after the January 9 flooding that we wanted to post what happened and the current conditions.
You can't plan for everything but we knew that at some point the Bluebell Trail would flood and that it might even be a yearly event. Taking that in consideration when it was designed, we followed Allison Pearson favorite expression when constructing at the TRWA "Go with the lay of the land". We took that to heart when we built the path, steps, bridge and bench. We tried to keep the building as close to the land and contour of the land as close as possible. Positioning of the bridge, bench and steps so as to not be in the direct force of the river was also taken in to account. Those items were also securely fastened in to concrete footers. The path was constructed using geo fabric and geo cells filled in with crusher run stone and then tamped down.
The result of this careful planning was that there was minimum damage to the Bluebell Trail which required the TRWA core team, consisting of Allison & Rodney Pearson and Mark Seder, to spend about 6 hours to cleanup and re-apply some small areas of gravel. The 70+ ft nurse log and split and moved but as you will see below was put back in place. All structures held up fantastic which may be attributable to the Wood Spirits, created by Suzie Holmes, that watch over the TRWA. We were very pleased with the results and upon final completion of the Bluebell Trail we will add a few features to help with future flooding.
Enjoy some of the pictures of the actual flooding taken by Allison and the cleanup effort that took place. The Bluebell Trail is back in operation and ready for visitors. So come on down and enjoy!
January, 9 at around 1:15pm
January, 9 at around 2:15pm
Gauge Above Townsend on the Little River Crests at 8.93 ft. at 2 PM.
The Morning After at Daybreak, January 10
Later that morning, Rodney and Allison did some major cleanup and got the Nurse Log back in place.
Final Cleanup on January 11, 2024
Mark spent the morning getting the path gravel back in place and did a little maintenance on the path edges.
The Bluebell Trail is once again ready for visitors. Check out the trail this weekend and take a look at the aftermath of the flooding.
