Flood Pictures from July 24, 2010

On Friday night and Saturday morning, our area was hit by heavy storms and flooding . . . again.  With some trouble due to closed roads, the maintenance crew arrived at the course to find our 5" rain gauge already full at 5am.  In all, we had around 7" of rain overnight.  According to a neighbor, the water almost reached 1987 levels. 

Storm Total Map from National Weather Service shows Villa Park from 6-8"

As of this post, the water has left the course except for a some puddles.  Much of the debris has been picked up.  The evidence of the flood is still apparent in the fine layer of silt on the turf in some areas and the serious damage to the sand traps.  We expect to be open on Monday.

For the curious, here are some pictures of the flood.  While it was a sad scene, we couldn't help but be impressed by the power of Mother Nature at times like these:

First Fairway

First Green in the distance

The 3rd Hole with extra water hazard

7th Fariway underwater

#6 Redesigned with an island tee

#1 Green - later in the evening

Later in the evening - #4 still underwater
You can tell the tee was underwater at the peak of the flood

One of the problems with flooding:
Sand being carried downstream with the water from #6 green