If you follow my blog, you know it’s been raining here, just about non-stop. Last night (earlier this morning, actually) I was vaguely aware that it was raining, but not enough to really get through to me. About 4 AM we were awakened by a tremendous clap of thunder. The Voice of God, as it happened. Practically lifted us out of bed. Going on the old premise of “I’m awake; I might as well go pee”, I staggered downstairs. The toilet was making gurgling noises, which is generally my job, and the water level was rising a bit with each gurgle. Cute.
I flipped on the light over the backyard, and the water was crossing the patio.
I ran upstairs, woke The Squire and told him we were flooding, found a dress to throw on, and went out to move the cars to the top of the hill. By the time he got downstairs, I was outside, barefoot, had already gotten one vehicle out of harm’s way, and working on the second. He got the trash cans and other “floatables” up on the picnic table, and then we just watched and prayed. Fortunately, this new kitchen door and storm door are much tighter than the old one, so while we had a small trickle in the kitchen, it wasn’t anything like what we had five or six years ago. There was water under the bathroom floor, which will probably smell divine for the next week, but we’ll manage.
Somehow, in the middle of all this, I thought to call and cancel a doctor’s appointment I had for 11:00 today. The Squire is piling scatter rugs against doors, and I’m on the phone! I did call them at 10:30 this morning to see if they had gotten the message I’d left on the machine – they had not – but the receptionist said they would not charge me for missing today and rescheduled for next week.
As quickly as it came up, the water went back down. The Squire went back to bed, but I stayed up a bit to see if we were going to have any more trouble. So far, so good. I stumbled into bed at 5:30 and crawled out at 9:30. Still not fully functional, but I seldom am.
Right after the last bad storm, The Squire called Department of Natural Resources, and two people came out to look over the property. We gave them a video he had made, and some pictures showing how much land we’ve lost, and they said they would be back. The fellow remarked that a stream this small shouldn’t get this bad this fast, but it obviously does – and worse each time. They (a man and a woman) are supposed to come back and walk upstream to see how far it goes and what other branches flow into it. The Squire could never do that and I wouldn’t tackle it alone. He called when the offices opened this morning to report this damage, and ask about sand bags. Each successive storm is worse than the last.
And it’s supposed to rain again tonight and tomorrow.
We just can’t keep going this way.
Tags: flooding, more rain, rain, The Voice of God
thisendoftheswamp 