Many people who live in the country have water impounded for use in irrigation, livestock watering, or fishing. With all of the rain we have had in the last few days, water levels in many ponds and reservoirs are quite high. I’ve also seen reports of a potential dam failure in North Carolina due to heavy rains there (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/us/weather-storm-alberto-wxc/index.html, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/landslide-near-north-carolina-s-lake-tahoma-dam-sparks-evacuations-n878466).
If you have water empounded by an earthen dam, now would be a great time to inspect it for leaks and to remove trees and bushes which may have grown up on the dam. If we get another wet tropical system in our area, rain could cause your dam to overflow. Trees and shrubs growing on the dam promote turbulent water flow over the lip of the dam, which can cause scouring and even dam failure. So I encourage you to take a walk along your pond to look for signs of seepage under the dam as well as vegetation. You may save yourself a big mess in the future if you take good care of it now.
