Flutterby™! : How's the paddling?

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How's the paddling?

2003-05-08 23:13:49.266088+00 by Dan Lyke 8 comments

So I see in this CNN report on the storms in the Southeast that "In Chattanooga, Tennessee, school closings stretched into their third day Thursday..." and "...the Tennessee River -- which had reached its highest levels in 30 years in recent days -- receded Thursday morning but was still about five feet above flood level." Anyone been on the Ocoee recently? How's the paddling? In years past I've had a soft spot for that river when it's kickin' a little.

[ related topics: Chattanooga Whitewater ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 00:37:09.760465+00 by: topspin

I was gonna go out today and shoot some pics, but things got in the way. Needless to say, there's LOTS of water. I'm sure the Ocoee is kickin', but I gotta work this weekend and won't be able to get up there.

If you want an idea of how the Ocoee looks, though.... try this and does Dagger have an ambulance model?

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 15:09:56.285247+00 by: mkelley

I put together a QTVR of Brainerd Rd, looking back from the Chevy dealership. I also have a couple of static panos and a few photos of the area. This blog entry has links to more photos from others and links to my "flood 2003" images.

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 17:44:37.439502+00 by: Larry Burton

Let me see, the last great flood in Chattanooga was in April of 1973 and may have been a little worse than this one. I don't recall any real horrible weather event in 1983 but in 1993 there was that 24" snowfall now, in 2003 there is another flood. I think I'm going to go back and research weather patterns for the southeast again looking at the years ending in "3".

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 18:00:01.015412+00 by: Dan Lyke

Larry, you might be on to something. I remember one of the years when we were starting Chattanooga On-line, driving Meuon's son around somewhere near the airport where the road was flooded. That's when I discovered how much drag water puts on car wheels, and that it's not practical to hydroplane over big puddles... I don't think we got bruised by the seatbelts, but...

There were some big floods in '91, I think. Maybe not in 'nooga, but somewhere in that range is when the Ocoee blew past 40 or 50 thousand CFS.

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 18:44:06.923077+00 by: Larry Burton

The area got a lot of water in '89 due to hurricane Hugo that mostly affected the Appalachians but still provided Chattanooga with some high water.

Late April of 1973 was when I got my first taste of whitewater rafting on the Hiwassee. It was about a week after the water had peaked but it was still running high. I learned about strainers the hard way that day.

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 18:51:12.332905+00 by: Dan Lyke

If you learned about strainers, rather than experiencing them coincident with your demise, it wasn't really "the hard way"...

I think one of the tipping points in the latest planned marriage in our family was when he pulled my sister from a strainer somewhere in Idaho.

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 19:15:41.823472+00 by: Larry Burton

I may have my terminology screwed up on this one. There was this tree washed out and fallen over a little cut out from the bank that was forming an island. This tree was "straining" the water that flowed through this channel. Our raft got caught up in the current and ran up on the limbs of the tree dumping me into the water. At normal flow rates on this river there would never have been a problem but with the water flowing like it was I got myself caught underwater in the branches of the tree and nearly didn't make it to the top. I know I took in one partial breath of water before I was hauled by the hair of my head (yes, I had hair at one time) out an up onto the tree by one of my companions.

Strainer may mean something completely different to you but that's what it sounded like to me in your story.

#Comment made: 2003-05-09 20:20:56.436717+00 by: Dan Lyke

Nope, that's a strainer, and it sounds like you got an introduction to it.