PhotonStopper

A full day of steady rain floods a normally-quiet stream as it rushes to join the roaring West Branch of the Rocky River. Photo by James Guilford.

I stopped in Olmsted Falls on my way to work this morning. Last week I had marveled at the scene I’d witnessed crossing a bridge there during historic flooding. I hadn’t stopped to photograph the view and regretted it ever since. I vowed not to repeat that mistake. Since yesterday, 24 hours of rain combined with snow melt and saturated ground made for new flooding. A tiny, rock-lined tributary in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, dangerously rushed with muddy water to join the roaring West Branch of the Rocky River. Most of the time one can (being careful not to slip on the moss) safely walk on the exposed stony stream bed. The River normally falls gently over exposed rock, shallow and quiet enough to have played host to a wading heron I photographed last year.  Not today. It was not a peaceful scene.

Turbulance abouds as flood waters rush over a rocky streambed and join the flowing chaos of the West Branch of the Rocky River in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. Photo by James Guilford.