Surveying the recently flooded pasture, Dirk Zoner said that even though his cows had been in the Johnson pasture by Johnson creek (considered to be a river by some) just a few of months, they were already falling in love with it. “It’s a great place for them to roam around and eat grass all day long,” said Zoner, "and at night, who knows what they do."
All that changed early Tuesday morning, when a torrent of water surged over the banks of Johnson creek during a heavy rain. By the next day, nearly two thirds of the pasture was covered with water and the cows were forced to avoid the flooded area and concentrate their grazing on the remaining, unflooded, pasture. "If the water would’ve risen much more, it’d put the entire pasture underwater an’ we’d’ve had t’ move the cows back across the road t’ the other pasture,” said Zoner, one of many Greater Lagerville area residents who knew that it was raining pretty heavily the other night. “We haven't had this much rain since Nov ’08 when we had that big rain. The river rising certainly wasn't something we expected.”
The most severe damage was done where the pasture was closest to Johnson Creek.
"I lived here just 11 years, but I've worked in the area 32 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Zoner's next-door neighbor, Craig "Burkey" Burk, whose woodshed had water rise up to the foundation and nearly dampen the siding.
Neighbors, driving by on the county road, said that they did notice that the cows seemed to be congregating in one area. Lud Morgan, who lives at the top of the hill sometimes, said that he thought it was just the cows "herdin' instinct" that caused them to stay together at the upper end of the pasture. That is, until he noticed the nearly 10 inches* of water in the lower section of the pasture.
*some estimates had the depth of the water at 11 inches.
Note the stick, possibly part of a longer branch, and other debris left by the floodwaters in the lower end of the pasture near Johnson Creek.
When this reporter pointed out this sign to Dirk Zoner, he said he had not seen it prior to renting the Johnson pasture.
Video of what local experts say Johnson Creek may have looked like prior to flooding the Johnson pasture.
