Above you are looking at a railroad bridge across the flooding Skagit River, from the Mount Vernon south side of the river, a couple miles from my Washington abode. This picture was taken yesterday.
A log jam has built up against the bridge that has caused some concerns. Bridges in Washington have often been badly damaged by log jams.
The Skagit River is a bigger river than the Trinity River, which is my current neighborhood river. The rivers styles of flooding are quite different. Note how clean the Skagit River water looks. Do you see any litter besides those vexing logs?
I have been looking at a lot of pictures of the current flood event on the rivers of Western Washington. I have not seen any litter floating in the flooded rivers. Not in any pictures or video. I am sure there is some litter floating in the current flood, there would have to be.
But not in the astonishingly copious amounts I have witnessed in the Trinity River.
Above is a picture of the Trinity River during its most recent flood. The picture was taken from the south side of the river, at Quanah Parker Park, about the same distance from my current abode as the first picture, above, was from my Washington abode.
Do you notice any differences? To my eyes the Skagit River appears to be clear, clean water, while the Trinity River looks to be rather dirty, with litter floating in it.
I have boated on the Skagit River, long floats on my rubber raft. I've eaten fish caught in the Skagit River. I have inner tubed the Skagit River. These are things I can not say I have done in the Trinity River. Though inner tubing in the Trinity has become a bit of a fad among life-risking daredevils.
Below is a video of the most recent flood event of the Trinity River. In the video you will see a lot of litter float by. Ironically, this flood occurred a short time after the more dire flood that was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Hermine. One would have thought the supply of Texas litter would have been a bit in short supply for a flood following so quickly after the biggest flood I've seen since I've been in Texas, but one would have been wrong, the supply of litter had been re-stocked, totally ready for the next flood event.
Texans seem to pride themselves on being World Class Litterers. We like World Class stuff here. Soon we will have the World's Premiere Wake Boarding facility. Where people can come from all over the world to enjoy the fragrant waters of the Trinity River....
