Local residents told me the head of Elk Creek had been logged a few years earlier. I found not only logging but gas well roads and hillsides burnt last year by fires.

At the head of the left fork of Elk Creek, two roads for gas wells drained down the hill and caused considerable washout in the creek (right).

Eddie Baisden lives near the head of the right fork of Elk Creek. A gas road circles the top of the hill behind his house, and he got a lot of washout across the yard in front of his house. When FEMA refused to give him clean-up money, he got angry and bulldozed away the rock himself.

This was the worst flooding Baisden had seen there in over 40 years. The hillsides had burned last year. But he blames the logging at the head of the hollow.

"Timbering caused a lot of it," Baisden said. "They cut roads straight up the hill. There are water bars, but the water's got to go somewhere."

Eddie Baisden walks over the washout in front of his house. The timbered area can be seen on the far hill.