Do bayous really flow backwards?

[canone9]

Thanks Innotech , Listener2307 , victimofGM , and Southern man for your further answers. So it seems that the situation is that it's variable. Some bayous would flow backwards with the tides (due to tidal bores) on a fairly regular basis, and some will change directions only on rare occasions, like a hurricane or earthquake. And then there are some bayous that don't flow in any direction but are as still as a lake. Makes sense.

Bluff_Dweller and SOON2BNSURPRISE , as for people using rivers and streams for garbage disposal, yes this happens. I've witnessed it in developing countries that I've been to. In some areas it's because they are squatter communities with no public authority supervising them. But even where there are more organized development, municipal services are slim and people simply dump whatever they no longer need into the moving water to have it carried away from their sight...from food scraps to old television sets and refrigerators. It comes back to bite them, though. Because the garbage piles up downstream and when heavy rains come, there's usually chaos caused by extreme flooding.