A picture is worth a thousand words, as we have learned. But one might also be worth a ditch or a levee or some other water abatement structure.
That certainly doesn’t have the same ring to it. But as engineers have continued to work on addressing flooding issues in this part of the world, they routinely ask for photographic evidence.
We suppose it’s one thing to look on a topographic map and consider elevations and, at the same time, look at streams and creeks and bayous and just drainage in general to get an idea of what rainwater does when introduced en masse to an area.
And it must be quite another to simply have a picture of one’s front or back yard or a driveway or neighboring road with water halfway up the mailbox post on such and such a date when this or that amount of rain fell.
One is what numbery-smart people think will happen when lots of rain falls and the other is what the real world tells us.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
All of which is part of a multimillion-dollar federally funded pilot project aimed at reducing flooding. For now, the matter is still being studied. The part that people are anxiously awaiting is when the bulldozers are in play and the water problems are being addressed.
Council Member Steven Mays Sr. quizzed the folks at another fact-finding meeting this week to ask when the work would be completed. The answer was — once all the data is in — within seven years. But construction work could start as early as next year.
Laura Wise, who lives near Atkins Lake, should get a gold star for all of these meetings she has attended. Good for her for taking advantage of the project at hand. And as we recall, she has loads of photos to go with her complaints about not getting any satisfaction from any other corner about why she has to hike up her britches to get from her muddy road to her island of a house when the water is up. In short, if you have flooding issues, be like Wise and let the world know.
So if you have pics on your phone or camera that point to a flooding problem you have or have witnessed, there’s a place for those to go. The quicker the engineers get a complete idea of the scope of the problems they are facing, the quicker they can get to facing them.
Officials asked that photos of flooding be sent to photos@AbmaWatershedProject.com. The public is also invited to fill out a survey that can be found at the website: AbmaWatershedProject.com. Those with additional questions were asked to send an email to info@AbmaWatershedProject.com.