Water Flows Down Hill Or Does It?

A bayou is defined as a slow moving body of water, or something like that.

In late September of 2008 Pine Island Bayou showed something I had never seen before. I have seen the bayou overflow it's banks and stand six feet in my barn. In 1994 it even reached my house. But on the day this photo was taken it was about 11.1 feet and very shallow. It was about 6:00pm and Hurricane Ike was in the Gulf of Mexico and landfall was projected due south of Bevil Oaks around 2:00am the next day. We had boarded the windows on the house, put away the lawn chairs and parked our cars in the garage. Now, all we had to do was wait for the blow. We had decided against evacuating and were set to ride it out. I had the generator in place and my tractor strategically located so no trees could take it out. Ike was a Category II storm which was less powerful than Rita. However, it was pushing a storm surge one would expect of a Cat IV.

When I decided to take some pictures before the storm, it was quite, no wind was blowing, the skies were clear and it was hot. A typical afternoon for September. As I stood on the banks of the bayou and snapped the photo above, somethng felt eerie. Maybe it was the quite. Or, maybe some fear of our decision to stay versus evacuating. As I looked at the water something was not right. After a closer look and a throwing a few twigs and leaves into the water, my questions were answered. The Bayou was flowing backwards. The storm surge had already reached land and due to the low river levels, the water was backing up and Hurricane Ike was still 8 hours away.

The hurricane hit us head on. We could hear the trees falling during the night. All told 27 were down. One cut the barn in half, but not a single tree hit the house.

As soon as it was daylight the clean up began. The rain had stopped and the bayou was back to normal.