Oh Oh! An Accident, Waiting to Happen?

On a beautiful, but windy, morning I left early to drive to the island to check out the hurricane Harvey clean-up progress in the 'hard hit' area of Port Aransas. My special birding spots are still in disarray, but I see some improvements here and there. The park road into the Charlie's Pasture, along the ship channel, is still closed to traffic. The mountain of debris outside the village is now just a mole-hill and soon will no longer be there - soon, just a memory of days gone by.

I drove to the beach and walked some even tho the wind was nippy coming off the frigid Gulf. As I neared the ship channel and jetty I watched for the cargo ships anchored out on the water, waiting for the pilot boats to reach them to allow a channel pilot to guide them through. The air was very clear and as I looked across the channel toward Aransas Pass [another little town across from Port Aransas] and could see the damage to the Lydia Ann Lighthouse roofing,. Nearby, a brown pelican was warming in the early sunshine...

Paying closer attention now, I heard a strange sound...a gurgling sound from what I figured was water...and it seemed to be coming from just under my feet...Off to my right I found the sound source. The ship channel water was washing UNDER the jetty, on to the beach area! That's not good!!!!!

So, after the startled reaction, I sat on a large boulder and recorded the sound and water rushing through....