My state park is flooded!!! (Over 50 inches of rain since July 4th!)

[wfooshee]

It rained in July. One-third of our annual average came in 30 days, and it didn't stop raining until late September. July, August, and September saw over 50 inches here. Many areas of the local state park are normally grassy marsh, but they are now lakes. The body of water that is supposed to be a lake is several feet high and water is in places 40 yards past the regular banks. One of my favorite trails is flooded and closed.

Most of these areas have no drainage so the water won't go down until it evaporates. These are large pools, not flowing water.

A shot of a Great Blue Heron from a few years ago, the "normal" state of the marshy interior area:


A wider shot, but the same area of the park:


An earlier shot from the side of what's known as Gator Lake:


Looking at the area I was standing in for the previous shot. The board "floating" in the middle is actually the seat of a bench.


After even more rain, a shot of the same area. That's the same sign, and you can make out the tops of the posts for that rail fence seen earlier:


A small gator resting at the edge of what is known as the Buttonbush Marsh:


A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron fishing in the water that covers where the gator was in the previous shot. The plants in the background are the same plants the gator was up against.


All that water makes for nice pictures, though!

[Grandpaw]

Thank goodness we have not had any hurricanes.

[wfooshee]

For sure!!!!! Still paying for them, though!! The insurance companies keep telling us that every year will be just like 2004, yet Florida hasn't had a hurricane since Dennis in 2005. Yet my homeowner's is triple what it was in 2004!

Still, I think we can say that the drought is over......