The Great Flood of 2005
In the late 1890s,
Deal Lake was designed to be a model regional storm water drainage basin
long before the watershed had highways, malls and large track
developments. To keep Deal Lake picturesque, the ocean inlet was closed
to maintain a high tide level by building a state-of-the-art flume. At
high tide the flume allowed some seawater to enter the lake, which also
allowed the herring to continue to run and spawn in the remote fresh
water sections of Deal Lake.
Let us fast forward
to 2005. With about 90% of the watershed developed and less than 1% of
the land area having any resemblance of modern storm water management
systems the main body of Deal Lake was doomed to flood after being
drenched by a major 100 year rain event.
Rain started falling
on Friday, October 7th. By Monday, 1.5 inches had fallen and
the flume was fully opened to relieve the flooding pressures. Rain
continued with an additional 5.8 inches by Wednesday lunchtime. As a
Northeaster formed, the heaviest rains came Thursday into Friday,
October 14th soaking the already saturated watershed with
another 6.5 inches. No way could this Coastal Lake handle 13.8 inches
of rain over the short period of just 8 days.
In addition to the
Northeaster, the tides were under the influence of a full moon which
helped trap the enormous storm water runoff. Even when the tides were
low, the Deal Lake flume could not handle the runoff volume fast enough
to keep the lake below severe flood levels. Residents who were flooded
by the Northeaster of December, 1992 report this flood was about 12
inches higher.
