Saturday, May 1, 2010

Flood of the Century part 1

Blogger, I officially dub thee as being very frustrating for my delicate nerves.
Anyhow... recall my earlier post about the flood warnings? Well, I got up off my couch, set down my Mac, picked up my Nikon, found a country companion, and took off to see the excitement.
I first ran around on our property for a little while with my camera, taking videos of 8ft. ditches overflowing and debri from our woods swiftly traveling a mile or so from way-back-where out onto the road. This specific event involved me chasing a very large black tarp down a ways in 3 ft. of water on a highway (populated with lots of Amish people and the locals going to view the flood), losing my flip-flop, chasing that, and trying to decipher what the guy was saying to me in the car driving by very slowly who looked as though he was considering helping me (as I laboriously dragged the tarp... a little embarrassing). Well he didn't.
The tarp was, as I said, very large, and very full of water, as it was completely immersed in quite a bit of it. Needless to say, it took somewhat of an effort to drag the thing onto our road, down it, and across the field where it hadn't flooded quite yet. I have no idea where it glided off to now.
Anyway, enough with tarps. I waited down at the end of the road for awhile for Amber to get home. N and Z had taken her out after watching their kids to go see the damage done, and I thought I could hitch a ride. They never came. So I walked all the way back to the house and waited awhile. When they arrived, they rubbed it into my face that I was stuck at home missing out while they ran around exploring the mess. Soooo, Z. and I went out for an hour or so around the community to see the going-ons. Lots of stuff had flooded. I mean, seriously flooded. The creek rose about 8 ft. It'll probably go over the bridge by morning. Levi had left his house with his 18 month old son, and couldn't get back home, as the road had flooded. A Plain guy put them in a motor boat and zipped down the road/creek (the road and C. Creek are now the same thing) with them to deliver them to them home. Lower C . Creek Road was so flooded, I was up to my hips in water when I waded through it. The A.'s had to move all their electronics and paperwork to the upstairs of their home, and then evacuate their cars and themselves. The bottom story will be flooded by morning. I truly feel very sorry for them.
I'll post more pics tomorrow. Darling Blogger won't let me put more than a few up. I have severe relationship issues with this thing.
There is also a funnel cloud developing about 20 miles from here, and severe tornado warnings throughout our county. Not like that's unusual for the South, but it's new to us!
Flooded bridges, flooded church-houses, flooded volleyball courts, and heroic swimming-chicken rescues tomorrow. Stay tuned, folks!
p.s. For those of you who were expecting really dramatic and exciting pictures, well those are the ones that I haven't uploaded yet. I'm really not exaggerating ... honestly!



The Mennonite bed-and-breakfast's garden was totally covered, as well as their orchard.

C. Creek is normally about half that it width, and 5 ft. below that.
Sinking Sand Creek (they all flow into each other, by the way), starts at the first line of trees, and is dry 90% of the time.


Yup, that's a road.
The left side was waist-deep. There isn't a creek or waterway anywhere near this road.
N. went kayaking in that.

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