Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Flash flood camping...

It's been quite a wet summer. Each of our three planned camping trips had rain. In fact each produced more and more rain than the last.

Almost 2 weeks ago we headed out to the Ames Brook Campground in Ashland, NH. It wasn't raining when we got there and we were able to set everything up. Our site was on a beautiful, small, babbling brook. Of course, once we were set up the rain started. Our friends, Coreen and Steven and their girls arrived soon after the rain and they decided to wait until the rain stopped before setting up their site. The 7 of us were trying to stay dry, sitting at the picnic table under our big 20x40 tarp. As we watched the brook rose higher and higher. There was a rock that was about 3 feet sticking out of the water and within 20 minutes it was completely covered. We put the kids in Steven's truck (and by the grace of God they actually stayed there - safe!). The four of us packed up our entire camp as quickly as we could and got our camper out of there. As soon as we pulled the camper up and out of the site, the brook crested, having gone from 20 feet across to 300. Our site was underwater by about 3 feet. We were lucky that we were all safe and alive. We only lost 2 tarps, a bike helmet and a stack of wood. Sadly, a family lost their 7 year old when their car fell into the river shortly after a culvert was swept downstream. Coreen, Scott and I saw the culvert and the car both heading down stream. Very sad. We spent the night at the Days Inn at Campton then came home the next day. None of us were in the mood to continue camping or even try to find a campground that wasn't flooded. There was major flooding in the lakes region, where we were. We're done camping for the season.

On the brighter side, we are optimistic and have booked two trips for next year. Hopefully, we will all feel drier by then!


This was our nice site, on the brook. Notice the electrical box/hookup on the right.


Our site right after the brook crested. Steven and Scott. Notice the electrical hookup box behind Steven. The water went high very quickly. The nice, small saplings at the back of our site were gone by then. Washed away, even after surviving a mountain spring.


More raging water. Can't believe this was a sweet, quiet brook an hour before this.




And more raging water.


The fire and rescue squad. They blocked the road. Thank goodness we got out of there before they came. We could have been stuck there with the road washing away. By then we just wanted to leave and get somewhere dry. You can see that Theresa Simone woman who was on the news all that night and the next day in the background with her white hoodie. Just call her hysterical witness.


The road/bridge after one of the culverts (there were two) washed away. That camper was going to be washed away soon.

4 comments:

MusicMan58 said...

Hi,
I'm the seasonal that was across the street. You're account could not have been more accurate. Fire rescue made us evacuate after you left. My wife remembers Theresa screaming at her to call 911. It was all so trajic. We are back. The site is rebuilt and in use. In 23 years that brook has never done anything like this. It is believed that beaver dams up from here may have burst. Take care.

John Pacheco

WalkerMom said...

Hi John. Glad you are both OK. How is the campground now? Is everything back to normal or is it wrecked along the brook? We were psyched about what a nice site 39A was. We'd love to come back. I'd been wanting to camp there for over a year and this was our first trip. Hopefully, we can get back there some time.

Unknown said...

Hi,

This is Hsiu (Sho) Chang, I am one of the manager at Days Inn Campton, NH. I am glad we could provide you some shelter. If you need anything in the future, please don't hesistate to email me at info@daysinncampton.com

Thanks

kerrie69 said...

Hi just got back from a week at site 26 on the other side of where you were.Thay are getting the sites fixed up daily. The brook however wasn't the cause of the tragedy for the little girl. The state is at fault, the railroad tracks acted like a dam and once the water reached a certain height, it poured over. The railroad tracks are totally gone in sections-the biggest being were it let go and flowed down the road and took the family's SUV. It also happened in 1973,and the state never fixed it.