When I first moved to Bullhead City, we would get three or four road closures a year due to these flash floods. One wash in particular, Silver Creek, carried the water all the way from the mountains around Oatman, several miles away. When the storms would come, several of us would gather at the point Silver Creek crossed Arizona Highway 95 and wait for it. The first time I watched it the road was washed out a few feet deep and of course the road was impassable. Mohave County workers came in and rebuilt the road and poured a concrete apron on the down wash side to keep the road from being washed out.
The second time watched we took a pool as to how long after the water started going over the road the apron would wash out. I don’t remember who won, if we even kept track, or how long it took, but eventually with a roar, the apron tumbled away, and soon after the road followed.
The County again came in and built an apron, this time the down side went almost down to the level of the Colorado River where the wash ended, several hundred yards away from the road. I remember watching this time very vividly. As we waited for the water we had watchers up the wash to tell us when the water was coming. They always started slowly here, not like the instant floods I have read about around the Grand Canyon. The water came and with a gigantic roar the new apron was washed away. Now there is a large box culvert under the road at river level and extensive renovations to the wash upstream. The wash has not run in several years and several of my friends have never seen it run at all. On the downriver side of the wash, between the highway and the river, is a condominium project. I was told that in the beginning of the 20th century, Silver Creek ran so much as to block off the Colorado and force it to change course. Looking at the local geography it is believable.
So I have seen flooding, I thought…
In Taiwan I saw wide rivers with meandering streams. I thought I was smart, knowing that once in awhile a lot of water flowed between the banks.
Typhoon Morakot came to southern Taiwan while I was in Bullhead City in August of 2009. Rivers flooded, bridges were washed out and villages were covered over by mudslides. Many people died. In my bike riding since returning I have crossed bridges and seen the trees that were brought down in the flooding caused by the Typhoon. I have taken detours because of bridges being washed out. Tuesday I took a ride along the riverbank of the KaoPing River.
I had no particular destination or route planned when I started out in the morning so I made my way to the old railway bridge near the KaoPing (car) Bridge. There I found the area had been improved on the old tracks with several abandoned cars on tracks and graveled roadbed.
The bridge was blocked off
Wooden walkway along side the cars
It was great for walking but not compacted well for biking.
The old railway bridge
Below was what had once been a restaurant that we never found open that now did not even pretend.
Used to be a restaurant here
From there I went to ride up the road along the river on the levee road.
Ooops, it was gone.
Before it had been a good dirt road; now it was four inches of loose silt. I followed it to a new park on the “high/dry” side of the levy. It had a bike path and a mock bridge make from a section of the abandoned railway bridge.
Mock Bridge
There were also several sections that had not fared as well in the removal from the riverbed. There used to be a canal diverted from the main stream that went to a large preserve that presumably was to clean the water and provide a sanctuary for birds.
Santuary, or what is left of it.
What is left of the canal
That was then.
After the park, there was a bridge over the canal back to the riverbank, and there the road ended. There are still several dirt tracks that are used by the trucks going to salvage the trees that washed down the river. The river is divided into different parts. The width between the banks is at some points about a half mile. One third to one half of that is the main channel in which there is usually only a meandering stream. The other part is raised and used to be farmed. During the typhoon, not only did the farmed land get inundated, but the banks were breached increasing the width by fifty percent in some places. And even at the widest parts, the remains are covered with the dead forest carried down by the waters.
The "high/dry" side of the river is on the right of this canal, the river is on the left
This is looking at the river side
Occasionally amidst the debris one can see a banana tree springing up, or a half buried shrine to the god of the land.
Huts that were used by the farmers were half filled or removed altogether. This Sunday I will be taking a ride one of the tributaries that feed this river. Hopefully I will be able to get pictures of where the debris came from.
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