Mother Nature is full of wonderful, and sometimes terrifying surprises. Thanks, Angela J. Springer, for sharing. I remember my Dad coming to get me out of school early, one day in Junior High, because White River, at Riverwood, north of Noblesville, Indiana, was predicted to, or was forming, an Ice Jam and there was concern that it might damage the four bridges (Strawtown, Iron, Potters, Logan Street and Connor Street), keeping us on the wrong side of the river from home, if we waited for the school busses. Our house was maybe 100 feet from the river in the small community of Riverwood. I remember standing on our neighbors front stoop (how clueless we were to the danger) watching the ice break up from the rising water beneath, forming large chunks of foot thick ice about 6 to 10 feet across and pushing them up and out of the river to the shoreline and stacking them, creating a deeper and deeper channel for the river to flow through. When the channel was several feet higher than the shore line (it seemed like 10-12 feet but was probably more like 3-5 feet -- it WAS impressively tall to me), force overcame friction and these large chunks of ice were carried outward with the flood water. One chunk came up the shared driveway with our neighbors, miraculously missing both houses and stopping shy of the garage. It took weeks to melt. I remember, too, the eerie moaning and groaning of the frozen river ice before the thunderous cracking and breaking up of the river. I think back about how lucky we were that the ice didnt take out a house . . . or us! Mother Nature is amazing!
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:33:20 +0000