Last week, Santee Cooper announced that it was opening its
floodgates on Lake Marion and spilling into the waterways downstream.
For Richie Wimmer that news came too late.
Wimmer and several friends were fishing from his brand new
pontoon boat on Lake Marion when Santee Cooper pulled the lever. Like a tiny
floating toy in a bathtub, Wimmer, his three friends and his new boat were
nearly sucked down the giant drain.
When reporter Lindsay Street heard about it she immediately
started asking questions. You’ll see her story in today’s edition.
Santee Cooper says the lake was too full and spilling water
into the streams and lakes below was necessary. No doubt.
All the rain we’ve seen lately in the Lowcountry has filled
our lakes as well as saturated the ground - giving more rainwater nowhere to
go.
More rain over the next few weeks and months is highly
likely. And while it’s doubtful we’ll see a repeat of last fall’s catastrophic
flooding, it’s wise to be prepared nonetheless.
“We are continuing to monitor the weather and any impacts it
may have so that we can respond safely and promptly to any issues that arise,”
said Mike Poston, from Santee Cooper.
Weather is one of those things that affects our communities
in so many ways.
As a news organization we’re always watching the weather
because, well, people love to talk about the weather.
As a relative newcomer, I am still hearing tales about
Hurricane Hugo that blew through here more than 25 years ago. I’m sure we’ll be
talking about the floods of 2015 for years to come as well.
Most of our weather information comes from the National
Weather Service, which keeps detailed – and I mean detailed – records on
everything you can think of – rainfall, snow levels, humidity, relative
humidity, wind chill, wind speed, moon phases and tide cycles, everything. All
of that data is great information, and news organizations like ours love
information.
The National Weather Service measures rainfall in any given
year from October to October, which means this year’s rainfall totals could be
skewed a bit from all the rain we got early in the season. By the time the
water year ends in September, we may have numbers telling us that we’ve had a
heavy rain year - even if it’s dry for weeks and weeks.
In my news career, as I’ve figured out to report on weather
events, I’ve learned that farmers and ranchers care a great deal about the
weather. They are the first to call me when I’ve got something wrong.
Water is life or death to farmers.
A few years ago, when I was working in central Washington, a
huge snowstorm blew in, closing roads and knocking out power. The hardest hit
were the dairy farmers. Cows have to be fed and milked twice a day, rain or
shine. And while all the dairies had some way of generating their own power for
their milking machines, they had limited capacity for storing all the milk.
After a couple of days of no milk truck pickups, farmers had
little choice than to dump their milk onto the frozen ground.
As an industry, millions of dollars of raw milk went to
waste.
Here in the Lowcountry we don’t see much snow, but we are
very familiar with the costly damage that Mother Nature can bring.
Santee Cooper is well aware of that. We depend on officials
there to understand what the weather can do and how to adjust to it.
“Santee Cooper’s dams and dikes are secure,” according to a
statement from the company last week. “Spilling is a normal part of Santee
Cooper’s hydroelectric operations in periods of increased flows into the
lakes.”
Local businesses still suffering from October’s flood damage
– and even Mr. Wimmer who lost a brand new pontoon boat – can appreciate that
despite all our efforts to control Mother Nature, sometimes all we can do is
watch.
David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville
Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette
and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or
843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.com.
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