Monday, July 18, 2011

The 'Great Flood' of 2011

Last Sunday, July 10 at about 5pm there was a huge downpour of rain. It was kinda cool for about 15 minutes but then it just kept coming. After about 30 minutes of a huge downpour our road and neighborhood started looking like this:

I looked out the front window and saw my neighbor in his window well using a bucket to get water out. I ran back to Mike, who had just gotten back from counting tithing, and told him that our neighbor was flooding and might need help. Mike changed and ran out the door to go help. That got me worried that we might be flooding and well yes we were too:

This is after I had cleaned up some of it already. I called for Mike to come and start getting water out of our window well because it was starting to not drain anymore and it was starting to fill up which was making more water come in.

Here is Mike cleaning out the window well. I ran to go get the trash can and saw people running all over with buckets helping people clean out their window wells. Mike got ours taken care of and headed off to help others. It truly was an amazing sight to see. People everywhere helping everyone. Men driving by getting home from meetings and jumping out to help, suit and all. Many of our young men running around the neighborhood finding those that needed help. Everyone was helping everyone it was amazing to see our neighborhood pull together and help each other out. Many people had quite a bit of damage 2 families in our ward each had a window shatter from the weight of the water and the water gushed into their home. Mike was out until 7:30 helping people. He came home to eat dinner and then headed out again at 8:30 to go help more people. He was out until midnight cleaning carpets, moving furniture, and helping anyone who needed help.

This is a picture of our park...where all that water is, it's normally just grass. It was full of water.
Many people decided to take advantage and have a little fun in the water.

It was crazy! I am so grateful for the amazing people I live by. We have a wonderful neighborhood and an amazing ward! Everyone cares so much about each other and even those who were out of town were taken care of. It was an amazing site to see people running around with buckets ready and willing to help. We truly live in a Zion and I am so grateful for that! Minus all the damage that happened it was an amazing day.

3 comments:

Amanda Faye said...

Dede! Holy cow that is so crazy! You guys are awesome, especially those men!

Heidi gail walls said...

It truly is a blessing to have a neigborhood and ward to has eachother's backs. That is crazy and awesome at the same time.

Celeste said...

That is incredible the way your neighborhood came together! WOW! I can't believe all that water...and we are in a drought down here. We haven't had a good rain in 7 months! I love the kayakers! :)