I'm taking a week off from my real job to attempt to finish the map north of the big powerline before Christmas. I've mapped three days so far, and been too tired each night to blog about it. Today it is raining, so here's the first report.
Rubber boots are required footwear. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest ones I could find. Can you believe there is still standing water after the flood? Here's proof:
You can probably tell that I am finally mapping the floodplain. I was waiting for it to dry out. I think it may take a while yet. Why is it still flooded? The floodplain is not flat. Working back at a right angle from the river, there is first a 10-12 foot bank, then a narrow ridge of sand 2-4 feet tall, then a depression 10-15 meters wide, then a sand hill 4-6 feet tall, steep on the river side, very gradually descending on the other side to a much larger depression that extends all the way to the first contour. This large depression is where the standing water collects. There is no path for it to escape to the river, and the ground is saturated after being under 21 feet of water. So it ends up looking more like the Okeefenokee than the Chattahoochee. In several spots ditches have been dug and channels cut through the sandhill by someone attempting to improve the drainage for farming. It hasn't worked and the ditches are all clogged now.
Once the rain stops I will don my rubber boots and head back out. I am about halfway done with the floodplain at this point - at least another 3 days are needed of field checking, and then hours of drafting...
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