THE POWER OF WATER

A couple of days ago I posted a series of photos of the wind-driven waves splashing against the breakwall at my back yard, and ended with a shot of water that was pooling in my neighbor's yard two doors down. Then yesterday, the fellow who does breakwall maintenance showed up with his tug and barge, and a load of big rocks (aka armor stone). As I watched out the window, the barge turned and headed very close to my place, so I grabbed my camera and headed out. I was shocked to see my neighbors' yard with a large, deep hole in it! Even worse for them, the strong metal barrier had buckled in at the top, and then flared out at the bottom as easily, it would seem, as a curtain hem billows out a raised window.

Armor stones can shift and some even sink with time, but whatever may have been in front of my neighbors' place in the past, there were no stones to prevent the buckling and the washing away of his yard when the recent winds and high water came. I don't know if there's any way they can restore the wall without making it worse; the rocks they added yesterday may be all that can be done to prevent further erosion. And then they're going to have to fill that hole with something.



It got me thinking about the power of water. Together with the wind, it bent and buckled that section of thick metal breakwall like it was nothing. At my place, it's obvious some of the previous owners have added to the pile of armor stone over decades. It may not be the prettiest bit of shoreline from certain angles, but I'm awfully glad it's there!

SHORING UP THE SHORE

After living so many years in the Alberta foothills, where erosion of the Rockies takes place very slowly, it was a real eye-opener to move to the Erie shore, where serious erosion is never more than one good wind storm away, and always on residents’ minds. Most homes along my particular stretch of the shore have heavy corrugated metal breakwall barriers, and a few large armor rocks. My property has a concrete block wall, and a lot of armor rocks. The story goes that decades ago, after a really bad storm, everyone got together and put in the metal retainers. However, the person who owned my property was planning on moving, and thus didn’t want to spend the extra money the metal would cost, so just put up the concrete block wall reinforced with some big rocks. It was easy to do, because at that time, there was at least 50 feet of sandy beach at the foot of the properties. I can’t imagine that, since we now have water right at our feet. What changed, I wondered?

Apparently it changed when the town of Leamington installed a marina at the foot of the main street, and completely changed the flow of water and sand. Homeowners to the immediate east of me, closer to the Point Pelee peninsula, still have a few feet of beach, but nothing like it once was. In fact, I’m told the retaining walls here were initially put up to prevent wind-driven sand and not water from overwhelming the houses during a storm! The bottom line to me is that without the metal wall I have to be extra vigilant about keeping the breakwall in good shape. The wind, waves, and even the ice are constantly shifting the rocks. There’s a fellow down the road from me who is the resident expert on breakwall maintenance. He visits the homes along the north shore regularly, occasionally adding rocks, so that we all can preserve our shoreline. I added a few more this fall, and might do another load in the spring.

The process of adding armor rocks is really impressive. The rocks are transported on a flat barge, and off-loaded by one of those big ‘dinosaur’ cranes that grinds and moans, and make my cats run and hide behind the laundry basket. There’s quite an art to the whole thing. Here are a few shots of the latest load, and a view of the shore, looking east to the Pelee Tip. You can see the difference between my wall (with the decorative parapet) the neighbor’s lower, metal wall. Still in all, we are much better off than the people who live on the far side of the Pelee peninsula. The erosion damage there is much more severe, with loss of property a constant problem that has everyone scrambling for solutions. The armor stone is well-named; it does protect. Plus it makes some amazing spray when the winds blow up!