Water, Water, Everywhere

2/28/2019

Well, “goodbye, February.” It wasn’t a very friendly month for a huge part of our country. Massive Winter storms in many states and horrendous flooding still going on. Kentucky really had more than its share of both. We, also, have had way over our Winter average for rain and the ground is very soggy and unstable on hillsides. Here’s hoping an early Spring and brisk winds dries us out to a normal condition soon. 

Speaking of floods, we know a thing or two about floods. In 1981, in Mobile, AL, we had shortly before moved into a rental home along 3-mile creek. There had been a flood there before, but much work had been done and more being done on a new dam upstream in a beautiful city park. Seemed very safe, by the assurances of the landlord and his son, who lived across the road. We loved the house and it fit our needs quite well. About 7-8 months later, in May, we were holding a Shaklee “Wellness” meeting in our home with about a dozen or so friends. It was raining pretty hard and after the meeting, the friends ran to their cars and left except for two couples. We sat and enjoyed their company and at about 9:30, water was obviously standing in the driveway. We joked about them swimming to get into their cars and they decided to wait till it let up. 

On that same day, at noon on local radio, the Mayor of Mobile talked about all the work done in the park on the new dam, how it was a double reinforced steel base and they had just closed the spillway to allow this new dam to hold a beautiful lake the people would truly love, etc. At noon, he said this.

That morning, because we had planted some garden near the creek’s edge, I went back there and had looked at the creek level. The water was probably 7-8 feet below grade, running shallow, and the creek bed was truly wide in back of our lot. But that night, at about 10:30, that wonderful new reinforced steel dam burst! The day had been filled with 11 inches of rain in about 8 hours, and the dam just couldn’t take it. All that water rushed to fill the 3-Mile creek, and come rushing into ours and one neighbors yards (our two houses got all the silt and debris), ultimately flooding about 18-20 houses.

So, there we were, four of us plus the 2 visiting couples, stuck in a house with rising water, the water coming in the house (which was about 30inches above ground level, finally rising to 4’ inside our house (the level of most light switches.) We fought to save as much as possible of our stuff; the friends helped us reason clearly, saving things like pictures and other mementos. Finally with water still rising, we put Sarah (who was small) and one of the friends (who was expecting a baby) up in the attic where we had already put our momma cat and kittens. 

As water continued to rise to my armpits, Everyone got up in the attic except one friend and our son Steve (the two tallest.) Around 3:30, a flat bottom motor boat came up to the front door, which we had left open at some point, to rescue us. The young expectant mother, we handed down and across the living room to the door, keeping her out of the water. Then, the rest of us climbed in the boat, which was the landlord’s son, and he took us to higher ground, to homes which still had phone service and had taken in other refugees. We called a friend and told him our dilemma. It took him about two hours to make his way around other flooded areas in town and get to us.

By that time, day had dawned and others were becoming aware of the city’s plight and began seeking whom they could assist. One young man came to our house as the waters receded, climbed into our attic and got the cat and kittens out and brought them to where we had been taken. Later, that same day many friends came to help us. Some of those stories are just almost overwhelming. One lady, wonderful friend, but not one you would think ever would have been the one who did this, she donned her oldest shoes, rolled up her slacks, brought a couple of friends, went into our closets and drawers taking practically all of our clothes to her house, doling them out to neighbors to put into their washing machines and cleaning our stuff for hours, if not days. She separated the dry clean only, taking them to dry cleaners.

The rest of this story, and the experience of another flood in a different set of circumstances will have to wait for another day. Suffice to say about all this: the grace of God is never fully understood without some adversity in our lives. I wouldn’t ever want anyone to go through what we went through, but I do thank the Lord for the myriad of ways He made the riches of his grace known to us, again and again and again.

Thanks for reading, the Elder