Sorry for the lack of blogs…things just got a little out of hand this summer. Just as we were finishing cleaning from flood one completely…the day before the Bathhouse was to be completed, well God had another plan for us. We heard we were to get more rain, but it did not rain too much by us. The creek was at a normal level, so we felt we were fine. To be safe, we decided to take shifts and every hour all night we would walk down to the creek and check the levels. We took notes of how high it was for the next group and if it got bad the last person to check was to wake us all up. According to our reports, the creek was rising about 2ft an hr and around 5:30 am it was still at our steps by the creek(for those who know what I’m talking about). Since this is safe level, we decided to sleep in until 6:40 when we wake the groups up. Well, we all woke up to a ‘hey guys the creeks in our backyard!!”. It was by our fire pit only a few feet from our buildings…time to move! We ran over and tried to stay calm, we notified the chaperones and then woke the students…asking them to pack quickly and then help us prepare our buildings. We followed flood procedure- loaded power tools first into our vehicles and then moved what we could to the higher levels. We must have been too calm because at one point I had to yell into the bunks…Guys…the water is teen feet from the building…please hurry up!!
As we were running around in all directions…it actually was pretty comical. The situation was urgent, but again I did not believe it could happen…at least not again. As the volunteer vans were finally pulling out of our property, water was under their tires…it still did not seem real. As I was calf deep in water, desperately trying to save the potted plants my friend Jewell had given me…it still did not seem real. As I sprinted inside with only time to grab my back pack…and nothing else, as Alex fell down the steps from the rushing water moving his feet. It seemed so surreal.
This time, we were also stranded a the top of the hill in the Armstrong parking lot. Except, this time, we had a group of volunteers stranded with us. Since it flooded during the day, we got to watch the waters rise and overtake our property…I’m not sure what is worth-flooding at night and imagining the damage, or flooding in the day and watching it. We saw the waters surge to about 6in under our house. The water stayed that high for about an hour before it started to recede. Just as I had lost all hope, I walked away and couldn’t take it anymore…the water started to go down. Thank God!
Still, even with the water receding, the road was still flooded. We started to realize that we should have brought food, water and perhaps even toilet paper for our group…oops. However, our neighbors, many of whom we had never met until this point we bringing us all they had..bottled water, coffee-they were very generous. One neighbor even cooked us a hug meal! It was amazing… so delicious!
As the water cleared our property, the road was still closed, but we could tour the property and see the damage. I saw the volunteers eyes as they took in all the destruction. I recognized the looks on their faces…reflecting how I had felt only two months earlier the first time. However, this time…for me was different. I had hope. I knew what it would be like. I knew we could clean it up.
As soon as the water cleared the road, our boss man Joe drove in to get us. We took the students to town to stay at our church. They all got showers…flood water is full of bacteria. I slept with the women in the church pews. We had a small reflection with the girls and they all seemed okay with it…it’s a lot to handle especially in high school. The next morning, our boss decided they should go..its not necessarily safe to be cleaning up after a flood. They wanted to stay, but they left anyway.
And so, began the cleanup of flood number two.
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