Angry Bear Ghat Kill is Angry

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen 

This article is considerably lighter reading, but is also a mite heavy in graphics. Regular readers may have noticed that I usually post one image, sometimes a second. File sizes are reduced. Most full-sized images are uploaded to Unsplash.

I live in an apartment complex with a longish driveway. This part of it goes over a stream known as Bear Ghat Kill. (Kill, or kille, is Dutch for stream, among other things.) It is a two miles long, part a sub-basin of the Lower Esopus. It surprises me that it has a name.

Driveway in trouble, water is rushing after the brief storm

Here in our neck of Upstate New York, there was a not-unusual thunderstorm with plenty of rain. It did not last long. When I came home from the workplace a few hours later, the driveway was damaged. Looks like the stream got angry. The rushing water was surprisingly loud; I had never seen it with that much activity. So I took pictures. My hands were surprisingly steady and I'm glad I didn't need my usual equipment.

Rushing water going into the woods

As I was taking pictures, the maintenance folks were arriving and beginning to set up things to block the drive a bit and alert others. No way was I going to trust the concrete and stand close to the edge! The next picture is from looking into the woods while standing on the driveway.

Apparently the latest storm was all the drainage system could take. Materials that rusted over the years gave way, as well as eroded foundations. Another area nearby (just follow the torrent up yonder to the right) also had problems and the city needed to block it off for a while.

Nothing was done for several days to repair the damage. Everything goes from order to disorder, and subsequent rains made us nervous that it would all collapse — with good reason. I reckon they were negotiating, but this was a safety issue that was getting worse.

Again after the work day, I pulled over to take pictures

Eventually, a temporary driveway was made and this was repaired at. The strange wording is my way of saying that it was not completely fixed, but at least residents can drive on it. Equipment has been sitting there untouched for weeks.

Same stream, small footbridge in a different place

On a side note, use the picture with the gold car as a reference. If you walk past the car and turn right at the stop sign, you will reach a small street. It ends at this metal footbridge. That is also a section of Bear Ghat Kill.

"This is kind of interesting, but why are you telling us, Cowboy Bob?"

Several reasons. One is that I occasionally remind people to never underestimate the power of moving water. Another reason is that biblical creationists talk about the power of water in the Genesis Flood. This was a small channel that had fast-moving water, and it left some impressive debris.

A later view into the woods, note the debris

Tree branches and rocks were moved by this activity. There are other floods that have far more impressive damage, and it is easy to find videos of people who get trapped when they tried to drive in flooding streets. The global Flood had unbelievable water activity on a much larger scale.

You can see that my hands were unsteady when recording this video, but you can get the idea. Voices you hear are potheads talking to maintenance workers.