“There’s a hole, there’s a hole in the middle of Ms. Jeanette Sapp’s fish pond!”

That’s right, what was once a rather large fish pond for many years and well stocked by Ms. Jeanette and her family is now a wet, muddy hole.

She said on April 3 around lunch time, her son, Steve, told her that the pond was gone.

She looked out her back door and sure enough, where once had been water was now an empty hole.

The water was going downstream, flowing fast near the top of the trees. A large hole had blown in the middle of the dam.

Where did it go?

Downstream from the pond is the Boyett’s pond on Sykes Mill Road. Ray and Nancy were home at the time watching their pond. Nancy said she had just taken a look out her front window when looking again, out of the corner of her eye she saw a big, high rush of water in the pond and an outflow into their driveway and front yard, fish and all!

She said she called Ray as their pond overflowed the dam and into the ditch and road on Sykes Mill and then into the creek called Sykes Mill Creek.

Where did that water come from they wondered?

Then Ray said, “I bet Ms. Sapp’s pond blew.”

He went to check on the Sapps.

Ms. Jeanette said when Ray arrived, her son, Steve, was dipping up fish that was left in the middle of the pond. She said they had stocked the pond with large speckle perch, catfish and bass. Now they were all gone to the creeks or somewhere, maybe some in the Boyett’s pond.

The pond is an old pond that many in the community have enjoyed fishing in through the years, going back several generations.

Before the Sapps owned the pond, it was known to many as the Claude Phillip’s Pond.

Ms. Jeanette said that her family tried to keep the fishing the same. They restocked it, and in the past few years had it cleaned out, restored and a new drainage system placed in the pond.

She was sad at the loss of a long time friend to many in the community. But she said that when they could get into the pond they had plans to clean out the springs and if possible replace the pond to its original state, fish and all.

Ms. Jeanette said she would miss the many folks who came to visit and fish; however, she said, “God willing we’ll get it back, if not then we will accept that too!”

Other flooding near Climax

Riding around the Climax community, there were other flooding areas where the water had been over the roads.

The slough on Highway 262 just north of Climax was a flooded area. The water was very near the sides of the road and threatens to overflow in many places.

Several other fish ponds near Climax were also threatening to overflow their dams, and had overflowed the banks.

The City of Climax is know for it height thus the name Climax; however, there is drainage problems.

Bradley Street near Star of Bethlehem Church was closed due to flooding for a short time. And there was water over the road on Highway 262 just over the four-lane, but we found no other prolonged flooded streets in Climax.