Flood April 18, 2016

We knew we were going to have some rain but nothing like this. Rain started coming about 8:30 PM on Sunday night. It poured through the night. I woke up around 3 AM. I checked the wether forecast and we were in a tornado warning. At that point we couldn't sleep and could see the water rising outside.  We laid back down around 5 and Brian set his alarm for every half hour to check the water levels.  By 7:30 AM we knew we couldn't leave but the water was just covering the sidewalk.  

We had no running water and not a single bottle of water in our house so Brian decided it would be best to get some before the flooding got too high. So he put on a poncho and drug our wagon through water to get to his brother's house about 1 mile away.  He filled two 5 gallon tanks of water and drug them all the way back. He then helped neighbors get groceries to their house with the wagon.  

Gradually through the day, the flood water kept creeping up and up. At one point it was rising 1 inch every 10 minutes. Brian and I worked all day to clear our downstairs. We were both in semi-panic modes.  I kept starting one thing only to get distracted with something else I thought we needed to do.  The girls were pretty cooperative and since we still had electricity, they enjoyed watching movies for a good portion of the day.  Brian nor I stopped to eat lunch.  By this point we could tell the water was coming quick.  

By the late afternoon we had hauled a lot of our downstairs furniture upstairs and covered legs of tables.  We had taken most valuables, scrapbooks, etc upstairs. We couldn't help but go look outside every once in a while only to see the water had risen even higher.  We were in touch with our neighbors through text or yelling across the river that was now our front yard.  Our direct neighbors, the house next to them, and another friend's house in the neighborhood all had water in them.  There were lots of kayaks and canoes coming by and then we saw the sherif come by in an air boat.

The water peaked in the afternoon and stayed steady for a while before we finally started seeing signs of it receding.  The water came about 1 inch from the top of our foundation.

Around 5:30 PM, Brian and I thought it would be best to get the girls out of there. Our toilets would no longer flush and we still had no running water.  I quickly gave them some dinner and packed some essentials in 2 bags. The kindest, most selfless people were waiting for us in a canoe to take us to dry ground.  We put the girls in their puddle jumpers and told them to hold on in the boat like it was a ride at Disney World.  They did great and didn't seem to care that we were having to leave our house in a boat.  I found out these kind people were called by a friend of their church to come help and then they began helping anyone else they could in the neighborhood.  They had already helped one of the neighbors across the street/river from us. 

They were amazing people that walked chest deep in the nasty water guiding our canoe and then they carried Taylor and our bags to a pick up truck. They then gave the girls and I a ride all the way to Telge and 99 where we could meet Brian's mom since her car couldn't make it down the road. One guy even sat in the back of the truck to hold On to Ryley.

We had to take the long way around but we made it to Brian's parents.  Brian stayed back at the house to elevate a few more things and then walked in the dark to his brother's to stay the night.  It's been an eventful 48 hours to say the least.  Here are more photos Brian took today while helping neighbors clean up.

Water is going down.

Our upstairs is packed with furniture and stuff and our downstairs is almost empty.

This is the back of our neighborhood. You can only imagine what it looked like yesterday. 

How high the water got from coming in our house. You can see the debris line.  

We are one of the lucky ones.  Our house was about 1-2 inches from being flooded.  Three houses on our street and many others in our neighborhood and surrounding areas flooded.  It's heartbreaking to see someone go through this. I'm so thankful my family is safe. I want to thank those amazing strangers that helped us get out of our neighborhood.  It's incredible to see a community come together like this.