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The Unstoppable Devils Lake.
It’s been a while since we last talked about this, unless I missed a recent discussion. If you want to see something truly amazing involving incremental flood issues, check out the time frame photos for Devils Lake, North Dakota, on Google Earth. It would be interesting to know if anyone here has had to deal with flood plain surveys. The lake just keeps growing, so I would think towns like Minnewaukan will some day be completely under water. The house at the lower right in the images is located at 48å¡03’50” 99å¡13’36”. The images were taken 7/1990 and 5/2014.
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7 Replies
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There is a chart in the wikipedia entry for Devil’s Lake which suggests that the water level is returning to a historic level. Also, the article says that if the lake rises just a few more feet it will reach the level of an outflowing drainage. So the town should survive, mostly.
Unusual. Most of the time we here about lakes drying up.
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An interesting read. Natural basins with no outlet are a rarity down here on the south end of the prairie. Apparently they’ve been addressing the rising water for some time, as is usual with bureaucratic methods.
Here’s a quick rundown of the work that’s apparently being done:
The above link mentions outlets that have been constructed with capacities in the neighborhood of 350 to 600 cfs. I don’t know if those are a misprint, but those numbers seem woefully inadequate when dealing with a 3800 sq. mile drainage basin.
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Whoa what a change! Being from California, I’m just impressed someone has that much water!
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There is an area near Havana Illinois that I believe also has no natural drainage outlet. Its kind of strange because its only a few miles from the Illinois River. In 1993 when we had flooding the state came in and set up pumps to try and lower it, a state highway was closed for several weeks because of the high water levels. The soil is very sandy so most of the time the water just soaks in.
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Water goes where it wants to….
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I have done three surveys at Devils Lake. The first time I was there I was really surprised. I had not heard about it before i got there, but I read a lot since. Fascinating. They have done 100’s of millions of dollars worth of work there relocating highways, the high school, etc. Last time I went I flew in and landed there, pretty neat approach across the lake.
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A modern example of what happened in a few thousand towns during the westward expansion across what is now the US.
Water is a critical resource for existence plus was a major thoroughfare during those years of expansion. A group of people leave wherever and head west to establish a new settlement. Upon arrival, they locate near the primary water source for a dozen important reasons. Development, as crude as it was, begins to happen in a growing fan shape from that initial point. Eventually, what we might call a once-in-25-years flood occurs. Great damage is caused. The fan begins to move uphill where possible. Eventually, the once-in-100-years flood occurs. They scramble for higher ground again leaving the poor people and the too-difficult-to-relocate improvements in place. More floods come. More movement by smart people.
Yesterday, I met with a client on-site for a job to sever a parcel out of his larger tract so he can build a $350,000 home. My role is to create a tract that has no part of the flood plain, as shown on the 2010-issued FIRM, on it. Out as shown. He wants the new, mortgaged tract to have no requirement for flood insurance. The remainder of his current tract will remain undeveloped. As we were wandering around the planned tract boundaries he proudly announced, “This has never been flooded.” To which I replied, “That’s the same thing those people in St. Louis thought until last week.” I went on to provide some examples that occurred within 50 miles of his site in 2007 where the actual flood exceeded the FIRM numbers by two to ten feet. Then I suggested that he obtain flood insurance whether or not his lender required it.
Later, a high school aged boy I had with me as a helper for the day asked why I was so certain that the client should purchase flood insurance. He’s a big time duck hunter so I put it terms he could grasp. I asked if he had ever seen 50 ducks at one time in the water in front of him. That was common. I asked if he had seen 500 ducks at one time, knowing the answer was yes. Then I asked if he had seen 1,000,000 ducks in the same situation. Never! Couldn’t happen! Why not, I asked. What would prevent that from ever happening? It could happen at anytime during migration season. Many millions of ducks pass through his home area every year near where two major migration patterns cross. They all have to land somewhere from time to time. Why not a million of them at once on a single body of water?
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