Saturday, June 18, 2005

The Day After...

We got caught in a flash flood. While expecting severe weather, we sure didn't expect this. After supper the storm produced big hail - the biggest I'd ever seen. I was starting to get quite concerned that windows would get broken. But after the storm abated I thought the coast was clear. But not so. All of a sudden Ladger said, "We have to get out of here now". We got the boys dressed and out the door with Ladger. I stayed behind to gather pictures, and diapers. And then I was out the door and in the time between Ladger leaving and me, the water was flooding our whole yard (except to the east). I dropped the albums off at our garage (higher ground) and then was really afraid of how I was going to find my way to safety. The creek to our east was roaring by and the overflow was flowing west of me (through our yard and home). So I prayed and walked through the front lawn in raging water up to my mid-thigh. And was so thankful to reach the other side!! And so thankful to be able to be with my terrified boys!

I really thought we might lose everything! But in a short time the water started receding and so we spent the night at Ladger's parents and started clean-up this morning. We are so fortunate that the water didn't rise a few more inches - it never made it into our living space. It did destroy the skirting and that's what Ladger's doing today - tearing it off and cleaning out pipes, wires, etc. I've been digging out trees and plants from under masses of straw (from the fields), manure (from neighbors with cattle) and who-knows-what-all. It's heavy work and there's so much to be done; I feel like I've cleaned out several barns today alone! So I guess we've got a project for the summer.

I think the things I'll miss most of all will be the strawberries, the corn on the cob, the flowers that got hammered just before they opened their buds. But to have our home intact is a real blessing. There were several tornados in the area that completely destroyed homes, etc. I'm so thankful we didn't have that on top of everything else. Will post more later. Gotta get back to my flowerbeds!

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