Rainfall count: 8.75 during the day (total of 24.5 inches in 2 days)
Monday: we prepared more and put all of our furniture upstairs or on cans. We emptied all the bottom shelves and cupboards. It made me realize again how much stuff we have. Then we just waited for the water to rise. Doug rode his bike to help neighbors put their furniture upstairs. We visited friends down the street and in just the hour that I was there the water rose considerably. We were all getting stir crazy at this point and I was glad to get out of the house for a minute. The kids had been fighting a lot and we were all feeling stressed. The power went out at 5:00 pm right as I was making dinner. We had potatoes and pork on the stove since we still could use our gas. I wondered if this would be our last real meal for awhile. Doug hooked up the generator around 6:00 and we turned on the fridge, freezer, and some floor lamps. The kids had fun with their lanterns and thought it was cool to brush their teeth in the dark. Once the kids were in bed Doug and I worked on the house more. We also went out to the garage to put the bikes up and the others things that were on the ground. Doug and I stayed up until 3:00 watching the water. Doug was prepared to dig a trench in the backyard - but we didn't since we realized that it wouldn't really help. The water was in the corner of our backyard and above the curb on our driveway when we went to bed. My anxiety kicked in and I couldn't really go to bed. I think I slept for about 2 hours. I would peek out the window and see if the water in the back had gotten any closer. (we had marked the water level with sprinklers) The water in the front was just a river. I was glad that it was moving, to me that meant that it was draining somewhere. If it got backed up and started pooling then I knew we would be in trouble. Our neighbors were awake too. We would go talk with them in their garage. They were drinking and getting a bit drunk. They talked about tubing down the river in the street. :) The power came around midnight and that helped a lot. I was so grateful to have air conditioning and be able to see better. This is a map of one of the flood plains. We are barely blue in the bottom of that dip of dry ground- so I was getting nervous that we would flood. I think this is the 1000 year flood plain.
Tuesday: I was so grateful to see that the water had gone down. Spring Creek had crested during the night at 111.43 inches above sea level (it had gotten to 108 last year when it flooded). Doug and I went out in the morning and took some pictures.
Standing at the bottom of our driveway:
Looking down our street to the little circle at the end.
Looking down the next street at our mailbox. The water flowed through the greenspace that was behind our house from here.
The little ditch that leads to the next street - this is where all of the water in front of our house was flowing out. It was well-designed and made to flow to the creeks.
The storm drains were full and bubbling out of the holes.
I didn't get a picture in the dark, but the water in our back yard was a lot higher than this. You can see the one sprinkler marking the high point on the right. There was another sprinkler marking the left side that was closer to the house. We just found that we have a low spot in the yard, but it never got super close.
A tree fell down by the mailbox.
It looks like a road, but it's water.
This area by our friends really pooled up. Cars couldn't get through.
Damon and Doug walked on to a house in the ward that flooded. They had to walk over a mile in high water. They helped fix their A/C unit.
We did a lot of communicating on Facebook and email to check on neighbors and ward members. 6 families in our ward had water in their homes. Some were worse than others. One home was a single story so they didn't have anywhere to put their stuff - it was all ruined. So sad.
We found out that the temple flooded as well. I liked how one sister put it. It was Heavenly Father's way of saying: "Look my house flooded too, we will all get through this together."
My other project for the day was cleaning out my wheat mill. I had pulled it out before the storm to grind some wheat to be ready and discovered lots of little bugs. We put the whole thing in the freezer to kill them. I brushed it out and cleaned it the best I could. If we eat a few ground up dead bugs in our bread I guess we will live.
The relief we felt this day was so good. I knew that we were going to be ok. We all wished that it would stop raining but the creek was going down and we had stayed dry. Damon went to our neighbors to play and we had their girls over to play. Tyler and Chris went to a different friends' house to play. I think we all needed some social time. The girls had fun playing Just Dance with their friends.
We tried to stay busy at home after playing with friends- The boys made more Minecraft swords and Chris made a spear.
These are some other pictures I got from FB. This is Spring Creek that went over it's banks. This is an intersection that I drive on almost daily.
Rain count: we only got 3 more inches on Tuesday, bringing our grand total to 33 inches in 5 days.
At first school was canceled through Tuesday, but then they extended it through to Sept 4, starting the Tuesday after Labor Day. 6 days of school missed. I think they don't have to make them up because it was due to a natural disaster.
Wednesday: Doug and Damon went to go help with houses again. Damon came home at lunch. I made bread and cookies and we delivered them to the helpers and some of the families in the ward who were flooded. I stopped by one mom and took her baby for awhile so she could get her floors and studs bleached. We went to the park, the one nice thing about the storm was the cooler temperature. It was so nice to be outside and not be sweating to death.
Thursday I watched the 3 boys of this same mom so she could keep cleaning. I was very grateful to have a quiet house when bedtime came. 8 crazy kids in a house all day long was pretty loud. We tried to get out some fun toys to keep everyone happy. We got out the Marble Works to help entertain the younger kids, but it was the older ones who got competitive with it. Doug was mucking out houses again.
Before the boys came over I ran to the store real quick, it was my first time back after the storm. I was curious what it was going to be like. It wasn't as bad as I thought. No produce, meat, or eggs. But they had bread and some milk. Other areas in the store were hit or miss. Pasta, green beans, and chips were sparse. The store said they would be receiving trucks that day so I think they got stocked again pretty quickly.
Friday the stake asked for the men to take a break so they wouldn't hurt themselves. They were all working so hard. So the women had a chance to take a turn. I went and helped bleach floors and studs in two homes. Doug actually was supervising the YM/YW so he worked again, the stinker. Then he went out again in the afternoon - he's such a good worker. Damon watched the rest of the crew at home in the morning. I had set up a playdate for the girls so he wouldn't have to watch everyone - but I had miscommunicated via text so they didn't have their playdate until later. Oh well. I was pretty tired and stressed out this day and probably took it out on the family. This hurricane business is pretty crazy.
By Saturday the homes in our ward were basically done - waiting for contractors and stuff. So now the ward made up crews to go help other areas in the stake and nearby neighborhoods. Doug really took the day off and stayed home doing projects around the house. He mowed our yard and the yard of a newly widowed mother in the ward. He still worked hard, just not by mucking houses.
I took the kids to the library in the afternoon and we even took a ride on the trolley. It was good to get out and do something normal. It seemed weird though and I felt a bit guilty doing something fun when I knew so many other people were in such need. We have donated clothing, money and supported the local school with their charity drives. Doug is mucking out homes and I am helping with kids or cleaning. We are trying to help as much as we can. I am so grateful though that as the end of the day, our house is fine and our lives are basically normal. So so grateful that we didn't flood. It was a very very very long week! And the the FB posts about nobody in Texas knowing what day it is, was so true.
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