Flooding and the Aftermath

Well my worst fears actually manifested and we flooded!! Monday morning the phone rang at 6:45 am, my mom asking if we had seen all the water and off course we hadn't. It had come up in the middle of the night like a lion and it wasn't planning on slowing down anytime soon. If anything it was just getting started. The above photo was taken around 7:30am when I had a minute to look out my daughter's bedroom window. The river was now running right alongside our home.

As I glanced downward the murky river water was already climbing up the side of our home. The entire road was a hive of activity. You could hear engines roaring, shouting, and vehicles scrambling for a dry spot. Our front yard is really high since it was filled in about 10 years ago with gravel to stop some of the flooding so we ended up with neighbors cars, trucks, campers & quads parked up and down the little stretch of land that was guaranteed or at least should be guaranteed to stay dry. It seemed to have snuck up on all of us and we only had so much time to make preparations for the worst case scenario.

Our first concern was heading down into the basement to disconnect our water pump that pumps the water from our well. It has to be removed because if it is submerged in water it will most definitely not start again :( So hubby raced down the stairs to find that there was already over a foot of water inside the house. His boots barely cleared the top of the water as he frantically looked for tools and shut off valves. By the time he returned less than 30 minutes later the water had cleared his boots and was creeping up past his knees.

My oldest son and I headed outside to salvage bikes that we're already going under, garbage cans that were sure to be set afloat and anything else that we could still make it to, which really wasn't much since the water was already up over the back fields and creeping into our immediate backyard right behind the house. We had just stock piled a bunch of hay for our cows two days before and it was going under :( Dh's ride on lawnmower was past the point of no return and there were countless other pieces of machinery that were already long gone. We retreated indoors to wait. It's very eery to sit inside your home and listen to the water gurgle & rush in through the windows as it attempts to catch up with all of the water just waiting to get in on the outside.

We finally couldn't stand it and had to go outside to see what was going on around us. Our home had become a virtual island as water surrounded us on all sides. Above is the end of our driveway looking towards other homes that were either surrounded or unfortunately filling with the muddy waters.



The only mode of transportation left now was rowboat *grin*.

We eventually got about 6 feet of water in the basement and breathed a big sigh of relief that it wasn't going to come right into our main floor where it would be catastrophic. With the power shut off in most of our home we waited for it to go down.

Eventually by the following morning it was finally only about a foot deep inside and hubby began the process of cleaning up the debris, and trying to pump out the water left behind. Machinery was checked out and started up & damage was assessed.

It was great to see the water rush out through the hoses but unfortunately it is not staying out. With the ground so saturated it returns immediately so we will just have to wait. Eventually we'll get it all out but for now we will have to learn to live with it. The forecast has been for heavy rains but so far we've got snow! Which on one hand is a welcome reprieve from the rain but on the other hand if it warms up to quickly we're looking at a complete repeat of Monday but with an even more dire outcome. I'm not sure what will happen next but I'm hopeful :)

~ Rosina