Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Tropical storm Fay - need that pond topped off?

GW,

That is a lot of scary water.

Having had an ocean front home at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in NC for a number of years, I got a big lump in my stomach every time a new tropical storm or hurricane formed. The cleanup after a major storm was always heart wrenching. We finally sold after Hugo caused the ocean to take the dunes between us and the ocean, our air conditioner, our front walkway, and our shed.

I sure hope all of you in Fay's path make it through without serious problems.

Ken

P.S. -- GW, thanks for the links. Lots of good tips. I hope to have a siphon in place before the next time that the water goes over my emergency spillway. Mine will be mainly to try and get some of the nasty stuff off the bottom. I'm now thinking of placing three or four 4-inch pipes in the spillway, each pulling bottom water from different bottom areas of the pond. Because of the way my spillway is built, I should be able to place air intake/shutoffs in a pretty safe place to stop the siphon action.

I hate to be a copycat letsrodeo, but I got 14.2" in 48 hours. It's likely we'll get more today.

There's just a trickle going over the e. spillway now and the siphon is still running. I'm a little disappointed that I had to break up my mini dam on the e. spillway because I've been hoping to keep fish from entering my pond with it. When I checked the spillway this morning I saw a few very quick small fish in the shallow water. I only have FH and RES and they didn't look like FH so I hope those were yoy RES. If not then there's a good chance I have Golden Shiners from the creek.

Edit: I netted one small fish on the emgy spillway and it was a yoy RES. I don't mind losing some of them because I don't have a large predator in my pond to help keep the RES in check.

glad things are settling down for you, GW. That was a pretty good test. I got nuttin'. I dont even see it anymore on the map.

Burger the eye went over your place about an hour ago.

thats a nice smooth emerg. spillway flow gw. i have a small grand canyon gusher that hasnt seen big action for almost 3 years. i want to say congrats on the incredible amount of rainfall but w/ the grid outages and nasty conditions you might not feel the blessing.....

here's a shot of mine a few years ago.

Thanks DIED. My out flow actually increased a little after I took that video, but that's the point where I had an inch of water going over the dam. I chose not to take the time to fetch my camera.

Until I raise the height of the dam I have to choose between risking a breach and letting more water over the emgy spillway. Naturally when the dam was topped the decision was easy and I grabbed the ax. I'm glad I didn't make the step bomb proof. The flow over the spillway runs parallel to part of the dam and so I get erosion on the back side. I need to raise the dam, reinforce the back of the dam, and increase my siphon from 6" to 8" (or 10"?). I should be in good shape then.

I may have failed to record one of my rainfall readings. Mr H next door also kept records and he measured over 16". I tend to trust his records over my own. The town 15 miles east of us had over 20" breaking the old record set in 1948.

It's been over 48 hours since we lost power and it's still out.

It's amazing how a storm like Fay can dump so much water over such a long period, and over such a wide range.

Tonight, my pond level is well over the top of the standpipe, and is near going over the emergency overflow. My rain gauge fills at 3-inches. It was near full when I got home last night. It was over the top when we got up this morning. It rained all day today.

For us, it was good. We were a little dry. The rain fall has moved on, but is still dropping a lot of water over Pennsylvania tonight.

We got 2 days of slow rain from Fay. Pastures were extremely dry before she came to town.

I'm about 150 miles west of you and got nothing from Fay. All of the recent rain/storms have missed us.

The dam on Cindy's 7 acre pond was 3/4 finished when Fay hit. Of course the 6" drain couldn't handle the incoming water and the dam washed out at the low point.

At first I thought it would have been nice if her pond was completed before the storm, but I wouldn't have enjoyed the stress of watching a very new pond tested so soon.

Jeez, sorry to hear that GW. How much damage was done? Is the pond gone now?

Thanks JHAP, about 70-80 feet washed out from the center of the dam. The majority of the pond is still unformed so there wasn't any loss there. The only person with a loss in the pond contractor. He'll have to spend a good day or more rebuilding to get to the point where he was before the storm.

You're typing unbelievably calm for such an incident.

+1


Wow, really sorry to hear that GW.

Well, it is just a pile of dirt at this point. Many people suffered a lot worse from this record breaking storm.

Another reason I'm not to worried is the confidence I have in the contractor. Everyone should be as lucky as we were in finding a pond man.

and lucky that contractor isnt going to bill you for the add'l manhours.........or is he?

afterall, a good contract includes such language as "not responsible for acts of God"

Honestly I don't know DIED, but if he does charge I wouldn't think any less of him for it. It certainly wasn't his fault.

My first concern was that the dam wouldn't be as strong with a repair, and that's where my confidence in the contractor comes in.

Great attitude GW.