Gracie and I have been stuck in the house with the Flu bug for the past 2 weeks.
Needless to say we've been chompin at the bit to get outside.
Some have probably seen this on the news and we wanted to get a first hand look for ourselves.
Went to Haddam Meadows State Park yesterday. Its a massive expanse of open area with a boat launch. You can walk the rivers edge here with an almost unobstructed view. The sight was SIMPLY AMAZING!
Ice as far as one could see in every direction! Even 20/30 ft. back from the shore would have an occasional chunk of ice probably as big as 500/1000 lbs!
The Ct River isn't the Mississippi but its a very large river covering Northern N.H., Western Mass, and of course central Ct. Some 400+ miles long.
The bridge in the area of the Goodspeed Opera house (Haddam Ct.) was built in 1913. Its a swing bridge and has a total length of approximately 900 ft and the single point rotating area is around 450 ft. long.
Apparently the ice was building up in the vicinity of the bridge so the Coast Guard was called in. The New Haven boat was unable to keep up with it and boats from N.Y. and N.J. were brought in to help. Two areas were iced up badly and the largest being close to 5 mi. in length.
One marina by the bridge had huge pilings and pieces of dock tumbled like match sticks and debris scattered among the ice chunks. This area was just encased in what looked like giant ice cubes as much as several ft across in size.
The pics in the bridge area were taken after the Coast Guard had worked there for almost a week. Above the bridge is still in bad shape. Some residents have been evacuated and there's no doubt this is going to be a costly winter for those who live or have businesses along the river.
Mother Nature has been rough on Ct. this year. I've lived here all my life and have never seen anything even remotely as close to this!
Living here I have also have taken for granted the absolute beauty of the Ct. River. The fishing, boating, and the majestic views, especially from the east side where cliffs can go straight down 100/200 ft to the water.
I hope you may find this interesting and I've also included a FB link which has a few video's. (please click on see all)
All have a great day and enjoy, .. Lou
https://www.facebook.com/EastHaddamSwingBridge/?hc_ref=ARSYZq5lJSM_xJ1hVMlyk3sxYsLiinczciz9cww8PbfendnpJtzonRsa2alHjmeieuQ&fref=nf
A few more!
I lived in Glastonbury at one point and don't remember ever seeing the river like that. We could see the river out the window in the spring when the river was up over its banks and flooding the Glastonbury meadows. I was there in 73-76 and remember a big ice storm that shut things down for a few days.
Wow! Does this happen often?
Wow! that is a mess.
Joe
P.S. Hope you and Gracie are feeling better.
Wow. Thanks for the pictures. Amazing. Keep warm.🛷⛸🏂
Wow, do they use dynamite to break up the ice to prevent flooding?
Back when I lived in Lincoln, NE, I vaguely remember back in 96 or 97 they had to use helicopters and explosives to blow up the ice to get it moving on the platte river.
Any pics of a river at any time of the year are always great pics !! Thanks for sharing ...Jeff
simply amazing. so much for global warming.
Just got a news update. Looks like more problems are to come and they've brought another ice breaker in from Boston.
That's 4 at the present and they also indicated that the swing bridge in not functioning at the moment.
Unfortunately, that bridge needs to work to allow the boats to get to the upper river. The Boston's boat Captain said it was some of the toughest ice he's seen in New England.
Its not uncommon for the inner coves of the river to freeze but nothing even close to what's being seen here now. I have already heard some talk about a Stripe Bass kill. There was one last year and the year before it was significant.
The DEP (2ys ago) counted over 400 dead stripers from 5 to 30 or so pounds and this was in some of the smaller creeks off the river. I'm hoping we'll not see more of that this year!
.....................Lou
Not good!
Quote from: Keta on January 26, 2018, 02:38:03 AM
Not good!
That says it all. Keep us updated Lou. Dominick
I hope for the best Lou, this has been a brutal winter for all of the eastern half of the US. I hope the stripers make it to deeper water and survive the cold.
There was a big concern here for a seatrout and shrimp kill when the water temps dipped into the low 40's from the snow a few weeks ago. Havent seen any reports of a fish kill in the area, but its all but shut down the fishing even to now. I saw a couple hundred fish today, schooled up and passing through the creeks. Not a one was interested in our baits though.
Our thoughts are with you in your best interest. Good luck. And keep up the good work.👨🔧