Banana Bend -- The day after the Flood
This photo shows the Banana Bend area the day after the flood. This was taken before any road repairs were made
and few of the neighbors were back in their homes. The National Guard was called in to protect homes from looters
and utilities were non-existant.
You can see very well in this picture where the river cut a new channel through Banana Bend into the sand pit to
the east. This water continued in pretty much a straight line to White's lake cutting a channel through Rio Villa where
there was another pipeline and sand pit there. The pipeline was destroyed, releasing diesel and gasolene into the
water upstream of Rio Villa where it caught fire and destroyed homes and several businesses. Fortunately for Rio
Villa, most of the fuel was carried through the newly created river channel and into White's Lake away from the
majority of the homes.
You can also see that Parker's Hole went from being a lagoon to an open Lake. The penensula that had enclosed it was
for the most part, completely eroded away, and it's sand deposited downstream. In fact, one of the promenant features
of this photo is how the sand eroded from upstream was deposited in various parts of Banana Bend. The barges
that had been abandoned had for the most part been carried downstream to White's Lake. Only 3 or 4 out of the 15
that were there remain.
As one moves north, although you cannot see it in this photo, the river banks were badly eroded, especially where
sand mines had been dug adjacent to the river. In all around 8 houses close to the new channel were washed away,
while some 40 houses out of a 110 were un-inhabitable. While the eastern end of Banana Bend was eroded away,
houses, foundations and all, the western part was left with large amounts of sand deposited in their yards and under
their houses. In some places, there were dunes 8-10 feet deep.