Floodwater Dance

Vermilion River, Rotary Point, Lafayette, LA, USA
August 2016

It rained for 72 hours, sometimes pouring and sometimes drizzling, and flooded areas of Louisiana that were both categorized as flood plains and not categorized as such. A day or two after the skies cleared and the water receded enough to make the roads safe enough to drive in Lafayette, I drove around and took stock of the damages, and there were plenty to see. But at Rotary Point, I found something curious: The river was higher than I'd ever seen it, but at the point where a coulee drained into the river, the coulee water and river water were colliding and creating these unique, perpendicular ripples. The flood had caused so much damage, but here at this spot, the draining floodwaters were unexpectedly attractive.

Here's what the river at this same spot normally looks like (The coulee is just out of frame in the foreground on the right): fav.me/d6aa27l

This photo was on display in the June 2017 art exhibit at the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge.