High Water Mark Photo Contest

Eric Simmons

This year’s FMA conference included a novel contest. The call for entries went out, photos were submitted, four impartial judges debated, and the winner is … Lea Adams with USACE’s Hydrologic Engineering Center. The high water mark sign (photographed in September 2015 as seen to the right) is a stainless-steel plate with a blue line. It’s found on a wall in a residential area in Hoa An, Vietnam. This sign shows the need to recognize flood risk is international as well as local.

Second and third places went to Alex Tardy, Senior Meteorologist with NOAA/National Weather Service, and Steve Bier, Anza Borrego State Park Ranger. The second photograph shows the flood of record along Fish Creek in eastern San Diego County. This extreme event deposited rock debris as high as 8 feet. Eyewitness reports indicated a wall of water along the creek during the flood of record on July 30, 2012. The third image is of a rock debris field as high as 8 feet in Split Mountain also along Fish Creek. Thanks for sharing your high water mark pictures. They all support floodplain management. Fun prizes to the winners include: first place – a generic tape measure to identify high water marks, second place – a pair of factory fresh sand bags to assist with the next flood fight, and third place – a 12 pack of color-coded water absorbent sponges to soak up excess floodwater.

Discussion at the “High Water Marks as a Public Information Tool” panel at this year’s conference revealed how many communities embrace their flood marks as a point of public interest. Knowledge is power and high water signs are effective at conveying flood hazard information. Keep up the good work communicating risk and options to lessen future losses!