Storm and Lakes, February 9, 1999
(Posted the same day)

It's been raining off and on in the Lake Wildwood area since Saturday, February 6. On Sunday the rain held back to a slight on-and-off drizzle, mostly off. That was a blessing because we had our big open house that day with about 60 guests and food for 150 (no exaggeration; Mary delivered the last care package of leftovers to our friends this morning). The party was a huge success. We hired Ann Sagerdahl to serve the food and Kim Desena to serve drinks, so Mary and I were free to visit with our guests and show a few around the house. Most took their own tours while Mary and I were having a gay old time gabbing. (Ann and Kim are beautiful young ladies and definitely added a touch of class to the festivities!)

But back to the rain. It rained all day Monday but never very hard. Then last night the sky opened up with a steady downpour. About five o-clock this morning I woke up to hear the wind howling and rain crashing on our deck and roof. This went on for about an hour. As the morning light grew through the haze I got up to see how our party boat was faring. Good thing I had tied it with lines in all four directions because it was lifted off the beach and floating free of any other constraint. The dock was several inches under water because the lake had risen about two feet.

It was still raining at a good clip as I finished my breakfast at 7:30, which I gulped down because I wanted to get down to the dock and take some pictures before the lake level began to drop back (it's now about 1 p.m. and the dock is still about an inch or two below the water). The pictures below were taken right after breakfast.

Our dock, taken from the patio.
Note the water washing over it, almost to the upper platform.

Party boat and dock viewed from lawn.

Boatlift canopy and dock from farther up the lawn.
Note that the retaining wall bumper tires are almost under water.

Party boat floating freely above the beach.

The boat is listing, with one pontoon sunk from entrapped water on the cover.
I'll have to siphon out the water when I can get out onto the dock.

Faye's dock next door is completely out of sight except for the top of her ladder.
After delivering another "care package" to Jack and Joanie Broomfield, Mary and I drove around to see flooding on the golf course and the rooster tail of water flowing over the dam. The pictures below were taken on the eighth hole, which is crossed by Wildwood Creek. Normally the creek at this point is a ditch narrow enough to jump over. Today it was a lake with water rushing into it from upstream and water spilling over the golf cart bridge going downstream. Below the bridge the water was churning white and beating against the trees. It's hard to imagine that we're supposed to play a golf tournament here tomorrow.
I'm standing on the far side of the 8th green looking back to the fairway.

Looking from the cart path after walking back toward the tee.

With the 3x zoom we can see the water rushing out of the woods.

Mary and I are now standing as near the bridge as we can without getting wet.

Turned left, looking along the bridge toward the tee.
(The tee is way up the hill and beyond, out of sight.)

Turned another 90 degrees left, facing downstream below the bridge.

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