By Susan and Biff Andrews

Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale.

He ate his egg with a ladle in an egg-cup big as a pail.

And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and the fish he took was Whale.

But they were small to the wine cellar he took when he set out to sail.

And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine,

‘I don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine.’

G. K. Chesterton “Wine and Water”

It has been raining — 29 inches in five weeks. Four inches on Sept. 3, two inches on the 9th, then 12 inches from Hurricane Julia.

Luckily there was little wind, so there were few trees down in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Julia closed roads in the swamp for two days. But it was Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 8, 9, and 10 that really hurt — 11 inches of rain with wind.

Water still covers some roads in the swamp. Some roads have been scoured out by moving water.

All three roads on the Suffolk side were closed for weeks due to downed trees, and they’ve only recently reopened. Deer hunts have had to be canceled. The gravel area at the Lake Drummond pier and launch site was trenched out.

According to the Refuge Manager, Chris Lowie, the rain has been a major headache. But it’s also a blessing.

The good news? Fire danger is not going to be a problem for quite a while. The Great Dismal Swamp is a peat bog with peat six feet deep, though only the top 18 inches holds and drains water. The water soaking this fire-prone soil will slowly drain to the east.

With average rains, there won’t be any fires until next summer.

The bad news? Winter is our “wet season,” and the rains may well continue to be above average. Trees don’t like having their roots covered by water. They will die. The roots are currently underwater.

So the water is our friend and our enemy.

Aha! But we have sluice gates and water management controls to allow the water to run off or retain and conserve it. Just let it run off, right?

But it’s never that easy.

The Suffolk Scarp runs along the western edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, so all water drains to the east — to the Feeder Ditch and the Dismal Swamp Canal south of Deep Creek.

The benchmark for high water in the canal occurred during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Remember the flooding in Franklin? But it was a foot higher this month with Matthew. So draining the excess water to the east seems doable — but slowly, slowly.

The ditch has all the water it can handle. There’s a reason they moved Route 17 to the east of the canal banks when they recently improved it.

So … slowly … slowly. Gotta get some air to those submerged trees.

So the wet season is upon us, though it’s already way too wet. The swamp has to drain, but it can’t drain too fast. The gates designed to retain water and prevent fires are open to let it escape.

Surely Chris Lowie and his hydrologist staff must be thinking, “We don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine.”

Susan and Bradford “Biff” Andrews are retired teachers and master naturalists who have been outdoor people all their lives, exploring and enjoying the woods, swamps, rivers and beaches throughout the region for many years. Email them at b.andrews22@live.com.