Photo Hunters: Undesirable
December 12, 2009 by Mrs. Mecomber
Filed under Photo Hunters
It took some thinking to come up with photos for this. I can’t say I frequently snap photos of things I consider undesirable! But I did come up with some things.
THIS.
Yes, that’s my yard, underwater!
From 1999-2007, Upstate New York (and more specifically, my property!) suffered from torrential rains and flooding. Up until last year, I could expect to my basement to flood 2-3 feet when it rained heavily. And half my yard would be underwater. It was very distressing; any rainstorm would bring on anxiety!
The biggest flooding occurred in the summer of 2006. A tropical mass of moisture hung over New York State for days. Maybe you heard about the flooding in the news, it was June 2006, and then we got hit again in July. The Southern Tier of the state (the area south of Oneonta and north of Binghamton) was hit especially hard.
Strangely enough, we visited Bainbridge, NY, two days before the town would be flooded with waters rising upwards of 8 feet. I lived in Bainbridge for a time, and wanted the kids to see the town. We stopped at the General Clinton Park that sits along the mighty Susquehanna River. I noticed that the river was unusually high. We didn’t stay long, because it had started to rain (again). Little did we know that those rains were the beginning of the floods. 
North of the area, in the Utica/Herkimer area, the Mohawk River swelled and rose over the banks. We visited the Fort Herkimer Church park grounds (the Mohawk River runs behind it) in October, and the damage from the June/July flooding was still very evident. We saw a lot of debris: garbage, splintered trees, rocks displaced by the strength of the moving water…
That wooden marker you see was set to measure water rising. I believe the marker was underwater during this flood.
The West Canada Creek, north of us in the Trenton area at the foothills of the Adirondacks, flooded, too. I saw a news video that showed the waters sweeping away a building. It was very… well, undesirable.
The erosion of the bank of the West Canada Creek are evident.
North of this area is the Trenton Dam. Usually, it’s rather dry or has a small amount of water flowing. According to a tour guide when we visited the dam, the flood waters burst over this dam, carrying with it enormous rocks. You can see the rocky mess in my photos. It’s a little hard to determine the size of the rocks– but most of them are HUGE. We could set a dining table and eat lunch on them.
So while I could have posted photos of those nasty plant-eating bugs that I find so undesirable… or the deer that eat my young apple trees undesirable… or the hectic city traffic that I find so undesirable!…. I guess this turned out to be all about flooding! VERY UNDESIRABLE.
How did your Photo Hunters go? Leave a link in the comments so I can visit. 
Sherry @ EX Marks the Spot on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 9:20 am
Oh, how horrible! I hope you’re right and that the undesirable condition is in the past. I should have posted photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, which hit us hard in 1989.
http://blondesherry.blogspot.com/2009/12/photohunt-undesirable.html
kelly on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 9:23 am
Flooding is very undesirable. What’s frightening is that is can happen so fast. That’s a long time to suffer that kind of weather. Down here in Texas and out west in California there is drought. We seem to be doing better this past year. It’s too bad that they couldn’t move some of those storms out west. Not that I would want flooding there but CA has so many wildfires.
jams O'Donnell on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 10:06 am
Ach I am glad I don’t live on a flood plain. There have been some therrible floods in England in recent years.
YTSL on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 10:29 am
Wow, the floods look really scary. But you’ve not suffered floods since 2007? Touch wood that will stay the case for some time!
Colin Campbell on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 10:49 am
I lived in a house in Washington DC where the basement flooded from time to time. Fun times pumping it out.
Marta on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 11:06 am
Yes, flooding is definitely undesirable. We’ve had some serious flooding in Washington state the last few years – I hope it stops soon.
sandi on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 11:14 am
yuck~ that’s a mess!
I’d prefer the sunshine
Surfie on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 11:21 am
Oh my! I think I would have had to move if my house and yard flooded like that every single year.
Look at all that damage.
Nature is so powerful!
Mar on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 11:41 am
That’s a nightmare!! great take on the theme but I am sorry about your property!!
that’s one of the reasons I love living up on a small hill…
Happy weekend!!
Lisa on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 12:02 pm
Oh my goodness!!!! It’s great for the theme, but how awful for you!
Alice Audrey on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 12:45 pm
That is seriously undesirable.
Bull Rhino on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 1:43 pm
Oh that’s terrible. What a mess, but I can see why you like living by that beautiful river.
Sparkle on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 1:57 pm
Wow. Floods are definitely undesirable, but you got some great photos! We live on a hill in Southern California, so we don’t get floods – but we also don’t have that beautiful green scenery!
Raymond and Busby on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 2:07 pm
Your flood photo is the essence of undesirable!
Like you, we had to think about this week’s theme, because we don’t photograph undesirable things very often.
Thanks for visiting us today, Ray and Buzz
Carver on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 3:14 pm
Flooding can be so frightening. This was an excellent post for the theme. Happy weekend.
Daisy the Curly Cat on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 3:29 pm
We have had a small flood in our house before, so we know how much damage and trouble it can cause!
bengbeng on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 4:26 pm
flooding is something we have to live with in my home town. i can understand what u mean when u wrote about how a rain storm can bring worries. everybody looks at the level in the rivers n drains from time to time here
Cats~Goats~Quotes on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 4:29 pm
Oh dear! That’s bad. We had so many in the Atlanta area that lost their homes to flooding. Seems like it’s raining all the time here.
Hope you recovered quickly!
bengbeng on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 4:29 pm
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/C_nWbtWfg9ItnH7hWBb3Sw?feat=embedwebsite
my wife n kid in this pic after a slightly longer mid afternoon showe
rdl on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 6:00 pm
bummer!! my basement only flooded once and only 6 inches and i found it rather distressing. but then we had just moved in and had boxes on the floor. i never leave anything on the floor anymore tho.
Jama on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 7:08 pm
I remembered my late grandma’s house would be flooded each time rain fell heavily, I was just a kid then so it seems fun till I’ve realized there’s so much of cleaning up to do later. I’m staying in a high rise apartment so no chance of flood effecting us at all. Just recently there was a big flood around Bukit Timah area, roads are under water and some housed were flooded , luckily it’s only for a few hours till the water recede. phew.
Photo Cache on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 7:33 pm
Oh my that’s really a challenge you have to endure. I remember getting flooded when i used to live in the philippines. Almost every year we had to clean up our flooded ground floor.
Thanks for the visit.
Annas Adornments on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 7:46 pm
Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. I was in a hurry and took an older photo. Had no time to take a new photo.
What an interesting post you have written! That must have been very unpleasant to get flooded. It would be sad if your books, photos and other momentos that you might haved stored in the basement got damaged. And the clean-up process.
Very good take on the PH-theme “undesirable!
Best wishes
Anna
healingmagichands on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 8:11 pm
Being flooded out. Definitely undesirable!
saint3 on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 8:36 pm
Had trekked in the rain at Machu Pichu 3 weeks ago and I can imagine being wet in that flood.
julie on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 9:19 pm
Flooding is really undesirable and dangerous. Our country suffered through severe flooding last September and October, so many lives lost and property damaged. I hope no one got hurt here.
Kim on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 9:20 pm
When I was in the Philippines if rain get hard I start to get anxious because I knew after the rain flood will come. Hope everything is fine there now. Thanks for sharing!
Photohunt-Undesirable
kim on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 10:02 pm
A yard under water looks like no fun at all. Can’t say I have ever experienced that, BUT I do understand the whole bad weather thing. We’ve had plenty these past couple years. Great shots!
peppylady (Dora) on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 10:33 pm
I guess I have no real room to grip about the undesirable cold snap we are having. I’ve never experience a flood.
Hope you get the time to stop in for some coffee.
kaye on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 1:50 am
I think you win–that is very undesireable.
Mudhooks on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 2:53 am
For a long while, before they started “cutting the keys” on the Rideau River, here in Ottawa, we had flooding every spring. Luckily for us, we lived a few blocks from the river, so we were never flooded. Houses in the two blocks along the river invariably had watter on or in their doorstep.
After they started breaking up the ice every year, first cutting long slits down the centre (cutting the keys) and then blasting it we don’t have ice blockages and flooding. Close to the falls they blast. Further away they have this sort of pontoon/excavator that does it. Safer and less noisy, though not as exciting as when they did the blasting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ieosHC8FU
Still, it is neat to go down the the falls and see the huge iceberg formed from the ice floes from the river above and watch it “calving” when the load gets too heavy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHgfHUoB-I
The falls are 50 feet high, so you have an idea of how high the ice is at the bottom!
eastcoastlife on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 4:01 am
I dread to think how I would feel in such a situation. Thanks goodness I don’t have such a problem.
Happy weekend.
CherryPie on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 7:46 am
Great photos, but as you say flooding is very undesirable.
bookbabie on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 10:04 am
Yep, that definitely is undesirable!
Marites on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 8:51 pm
we’ve had floods too in our old house and it’s really an undesirable situation to be in for anyone. I hope things have improved for you now.
magiceye on Mon, 14th Dec 2009 4:50 am
sure is extremely undesirable
Debbie@Like a Rose on Wed, 16th Dec 2009 2:40 pm
Good grief! That is definitely undesireable!
Thanks for stopping by.
ian on Fri, 18th Dec 2009 3:19 pm
tough! nature gives, nature takes away… i do hope you’ll have a safe weekend and Christmas week ahead… i hear there’s a big weather system headed across the eastern seaboard of the US. we’re already feeling it here in NC (i just flew in for the holidays from the Philippines. boy, is it so darn cold here!)
Greg on Wed, 6th Jan 2010 12:26 pm
I always seem to be searching for something and end up here. Keep up the good work. I love your photos.
Just a tidbit of information. The post in the river with the green sign on it seen from the German Flatts Church is always there, and hundreds more are across artificial parts of the canal system. Its there instead of a floating bouy.
I know, can’t the boater just see the shore, well yes, but it has a number on it, which corresponds to a marker on the waterway map so boaters know exactly were they are. Furthermore, the green sign is used both visually (reflective in the dark too) and is designed to bounce back radar signals for boats using radar.
Interestingly, this section of the canal was relatively unharmed during the June 2006 floods. There is a guard gate (lowered during the flooding) to the west and the main flow of the Mohawk river runs in a separate channel to the north. This section only saw a small increase of a foot or so, nothing really notable. Now, the northern channel and the remainder of the Mohawk River, well that was a sight to be seen.
Happy travels.