Damage on the Frio - 2014

I took these pictures as we have recognized the treasure that old photos of the river can be - documenting us and the river. As I worked on other posts I tried not to look at these and put this post off until last. I will try and "locate" the damage in my descriptions. This is your fair warning. If too sensitive of soul, go no further.

The Frio floods every now and again* and I understand there was a flood earlier in the year. But in June some wild thunderstorms with hail and rain-wrapped tornadic winds hit the Real/Uvalde area. Our river spot did not escape the weather.

So this is not a fun walk.

The good news is that damage was limited. Most of our dear cypress and oak friends, while not "whole," are still there. They should survive.**


The first damage you see is this cedar. It is just past the office/hotel units on the edge of the road. The pond would be downhill from here.

Notice the twisting motion demonstrated by the damage.

Another view.

While we were drinking coffee and watching the birds one morning, my brothers spied a big limb down behind the cabins where we often stay. These are the first cabins you find on the right side of the main road.
 

The break (this is one big limb).

The rest is obscured.

As you walk down the road to the lower campground you can see that there are limbs down in the woody area to your right. The "secret passageway" is open to view. (That may be something that happened a while back. It seems to me that it was clearer each year).

Then, at the top of the hill, you notice*** the roots of a big oak that have pulled-up (peeled-off of the limestone below). This "root ball" is well over 6 feet in diameter. There was a bit of a "domino effect" here. One tree fell and hit another and there are at least three trees in this mess that either went down completely or lost major limbs. This will take a huge effort to clear.

It is hard to comment on these. I can barely bring myself to look at the pictures.

The rest of what I saw was down on the river. One of the "monster" trees, the old men of the river, lost some limbs.

You can see where the limb broke off at the crown of this tree.

It looks ok from here, but scattered limbs block the trail

River trail impassable here.

Another, younger tree keeled over across the river. I am not sure if this tree was from our campgrounds or from upstream. This is where it "rested" while we were camping. It is just below the main swimming area (perhaps half-way to the cliff).

The river is still "floatable." This doesn't look too impressive until you get...

closer...

and closer...and see how large a tree it was.

View from across the river. You can see the river is clear on the left.

I am sure there were other limbs down that were cleared for safety and so the campgrounds could be used.

All in all, it is a lot of damage, but we were pretty lucky too. It is possible that some of the damage was in trees weakened by the drought that has hit this area so hard. We have been seeing a number of dead trees over the past couple of years and have attributed it to the drought. We have listened to stories of farmers' wells drying up and more.

Change is always hard and the river always changes. What change there may be, the river always welcomes us back.


NOTES:

*We have high water stories and flood stories too. One - YC was camping with friends one summer (the week before the family was to go) and had to evacuate, just ahead of the rising water (fortunately she was with people I knew were more careful than I am). They made it to Hondo before they had to stop as all the roads had become impassable. I received phone calls (pre-cell days folks) from the campgrounds and then from Hondo. YC thought she would have the "adventure" of sleeping on the high school gymnasium floor. But then the water receded and she spent some time in the hot tub at a hotel further down the highway before bed that night. We STILL went to the river the next week (and witnessed just how high it can get and the power of its flood waters). Campsites were washed away. Trailers were up in the trees. That is the worst flood damage I have seen.

**I have to remind myself that storms often take out the weak limbs and the weak trees. It is just the way things work.

***You notice if you are paying attention. I was walking my 1 year-old great-nephew down the road (I was holding both of this hands and helping him keep his balance on the rough road) so I didn't see it until I walked back up the road by myself.