Bye Bye caves

[karstdvr]

Real time water levels on the Suwannee and Withlacoochee in Georgia have gone up 5 ft!!! ...and it is still raining!

 

[marchand]

Sweet! that means the flow in devils should be down a bit, right?

 

[Dive-aholic]

Devil's is on the Santa Fe.

 

[marchand]

Yes, but the santa fe flows into the suwannee; when the suwannee gets backed up the santa fe gets backed up.

 

[jeandiver]

We did a dive yesterday (Sunday) in Orange Grove --> Up the distance tunnel.
Viz in the basin was about 0-5 feet (eek) .... rain runoff.
Cavern and cave viz , much better

And the flow was up !!!

Well , according to our friendly PSSP ranger , she says the Suwannee had to rise about 9 feet to start coming BACK up the slough (run). I'll probably eat my words , but it's doubtful that Peacock will go under. Little River , maybe
I bet Madison goes out for a bit though.
I need to re-check the guage forcasts. I thought they had predicted the Sante-Fe crest for Tuesday.

Jeano Beano

P.S. We were chatting Sunday afternoon about it and in our great wisdom ( ) we thought , well , at least the local rain here should help recharge the aquafers and push UP the flow. So when the water comes down from the Okee swamp via the Suwannee , the caves will have a little more UMPHH to fight back with this time ( lol ) .
These conclusions are not based on ANY scientific fact , but just our , er , uh , wild opinions

 

[karstdvr]

P.S. We were chatting Sunday afternoon about it and in our great wisdom ( ) we thought , well , at least the local rain here should help recharge the aquafers and push UP the flow. So when the water comes down from the Okee swamp via the Suwannee , the caves will have a little more UMPHH to fight back with this time ( lol ) .
These conclusions are not based on ANY scientific fact , but just our , er , uh , wild opinions

You are right in the sense that there should be more hydrostatic pressure from the rain that fell. The spotty showers up to Fay did nothing but feed local vegetation,and nothing for ground water levels. But,groundwater levels were severly depleted,so it will be very easy for systems to go under. The problem I see is that we have water from the Okeefenokee swamp heading down the Suwannee,but also a lot from south GA from the Withlacoochee,these merge just north of Peacock. Perhaps these won't cause Peacock to flood since there is a long slough,but we'll see.

 

[BabyDuck]

'boo' on bye-bye to caves, 'yay' on the recharge! i just hope it's back to normal-ish by 1st weekend in oct...'yay' megadive!

i just wish we'd had some of that rain up here in eastern nc. but i'm glad not over this past weekend, because i was diving offshore.

 

[jeandiver]

You are right in the sense that there should be more hydrostatic pressure from the rain that fell. The spotty showers up to Fay did nothing but feed local vegetation,and nothing for ground water levels. But,groundwater levels were severly depleted,so it will be very easy for systems to go under. The problem I see is that we have water from the Okeefenokee swamp heading down the Suwannee,but also a lot from south GA from the Withlacoochee,these merge just north of Peacock. Perhaps these won't cause Peacock to flood since there is a long slough,but we'll see.

I think I have to get out my knife and fork and EAT's my words. :11:
A friend of mine was in Peacock today (Monday) and there is river intrusion water now on the mainline (P1). Soooo........ lol

Time to get the Ginnie Pass out again and them Manatee fins. (SMILE)

I see the guages on the Suwannee near White Springs are rising fast and they are posting flood warnings upstream of us.

I wouldn't be surprised if Madison goes poofie this week. (EEK)

If I get any other eye-witness reports ( lol ) , I will pass them on.

I guess my previous post was more from HOPE , not from KNOWLEDGE

Thanks!
Jean

P.S. Another friend of mine said there was river intrusion in the White Room at Ginnie so even the Sante Fe is getting in on the act. (UFFDA) :11:

 

[karstdvr]

and them Manatee fins. :

If you catch it right,there is that rare time when Manatee can be spectacular because the river flooding slows/stops Manatee from flowing-unbelievable viz.

 

[highflowdiver]

Is this an unusual year for 'blowouts'? How much longer do you guys think it will be before the caves are good again? Kal