The Great Flood of 2013

It's been a crazy few weeks here in Waynesville. I have never seen such rainfall in all my life. It just rained and rained and rained. I'm not just talking about rain falling every day. I'm talking about huge, huge totals of rain each time it fell. I think I read that we had over twenty inches of rain in about a week. Twenty inches. That is no joke. Even in the best of circumstances our local rivers have a hard time staying in their banks, but with that sort of rainfall there was no way for them to avoid flooding.

One morning last week we were awakened super early in the morning by our property manager to tell us that one of our rentals had flooded really badly. The family living there was forced to evacuate at 3 in the morning as the river came crashing into local neighborhoods with very little warning. Marco, our tenant, said that when they were woken up there was about an inch of water on the floor of the apartment, but by the time they got dressed and headed out a few minutes later it had already risen to almost a foot. Scary. He grabbed his wife and kids and headed to a Red Cross shelter for the night. I felt this more than once last week, but ... thank goodness for the Red Cross. What a wonderful organization!

This Red Cross truck drove through the neighborhoods
and offered chili to all those who were working on
the clean up. So wonderful!

The floods had to be bad because, while the neighborhoods in the lower part of Waynesville had been flooded before, it never reached as far as our property. It isn't technically in a flood plain, so, of course, we didn't have flood insurance. Oh well. Given the disaster that occurred in our town, our little rental is not really that much of a story. One person on facebook commented that when a well-known reporter from The Weather Channel shows up in your community it is never a good thing. We were in the news ... the national news. I wish it had been for something happier.

After a day of more heavy rain we headed over to our rental unit to help the family clean out their stuff. Luckily we had another available unit in St. Robert, so we had them move there temporarily until we get their place back into shape. The family did not want any help at first. I think it freaked them out to think of everyone going through all of their belongings, and I can appreciate that. But once they arrived to really get to work it became apparent that they were going to need all sorts of help. The job was overwhelming. Herman had headed over to see how things were going, and soon he called and asked me to bring the four oldest kids so that we could lend a hand. Before I left I shot out a message on facebook to see if any church members were available to help as well because it wasn't just our house that had been affected. Entire blocks were devastated, and lots of home owners were trying to clean up by themselves. Herman called the missionaries. Luckily they were having a zone conference so there were lots of them in the area. They cancelled their meeting and came to help.

I love this picture of the missionaries. Because they had traveled to
St. Robert for a meeting, they weren't prepared to do any service
activities, but they borrowed some pants, kept their shirts and ties on,
and got to work. Sweet!

Team Blau arriving on the scene to put our cleaning
muscles to work.

When we arrived I just could't believe what I saw. In the days right after the flood I avoided driving in that area of town. I would have only been a gawker, and I felt like I would have only been in the way. Seeing just how bad things were was absolutely heart wrenching. Those who had already begun the clean-up process had huge piles of trash out by the curb. All their belongings. Destroyed. It was awful. And so many of the people living in these homes were already poor and had limited means for replacing things. Our tenants were in no better shape. Unfortunately they had not cleaned their house before the flood, so almost all of  their belonging had been on the floor ... toys, clothes, shoes, books ... everything. Everything had been sitting in a foot of sewage for two days. There was no way to save it. This family was going to lose everything.

A view of the piles of trash lining the neighborhood. So tragic.

Well, we got to work. What else could we do?

It was not the most fun job in the world. Everything was soaked. Everything. And it wasn't just nice refreshing river water. No, it was sewage. As I went through the belongings of this family I noticed how easy it was for them to throw out these things that, a week earlier, seemed so important to them. Now it was expendable. I couldn't help but think of my own house as I cleaned this one. I thought about all of our possessions that are just taking up space ... just in case. We have so much stuff that is essentially junk. I'm not a hoarder at all, but after going through this house I had a strong desire to go to my own and get rid of everything. Everything.

As we were cleaning we noticed the state patrol and several military personnel walking along the woods across from our rental with a search dog. They were looking for a woman who had been swept away in the flood several days earlier, but whose body had not been recovered. Seeing these rescue personnel working along the road was truly sobering. It made the thought of throwing away these possessions not seem quite so tragic. After all, they were just things. Things can be replaced. Life cannot. I made sure to stop and say a good prayer for these rescue workers with such a difficult task.

Some news crew setting up by our property for a report on the
search for the body of a young mother who was swept away in
the flood.

We were lucky to have a few good families from church come by to help with the cleaning. Because our property was fairly small there were too many people to cram into the house. Instead we fanned out across the neighborhood to help out where we could. There are lots of organizations that make a big deal about advertising their presence in these sorts of situations. I'm not criticizing. I think to a certain extent that is important because people need to know that there are people out there who are available to help them with their needs. But I also liked how our group just went by to help without making a big deal about it. So many people need help but don't want to ask anyone. They were grateful to have extra hands available to help them complete difficult, and often disgusting, tasks. I loved seeing how well everyone worked without complaint. One of the ladies who we helped apparently couldn't stop talking about how happy the missionaries were as they worked. Loved that!

Not the most flattering picture, but oh well.
Spencer and I are cleaning up one of the kids rooms.
It hurt my heart to throw away so many toys that they
must have loved so much.

Savannah and Katie boxed up a few things that could be salvaged.

With many hands we were able to get things out of the place very quickly. It was not an easy thing, but I felt like we were able to help a young family in need. I am super grateful that Herman and I have the ability to help them in their time of need. I am grateful that we had an open rental unit available for them so that they weren't in an emergency situation regarding housing. I am grateful to live in a community that comes together in times of need. It has been amazing to see all of the relief efforts from other churches and relief organizations come together in a moment like this. It gives me hope in the natural goodness of people in this world. Our news ALWAYS focuses on negative things. Always. It could make you believe that the world is completely going to pot. But in moments like this we can see the true humanity of our society. People are good. Truly, they are.

Now the nitty gritty cleanup work begins as we see what sort of real damage the waters did to our property. Luckily this place was set up in a way that was easy to clean. Many of the floors were tiled, and the walls were mostly paneled. We have cleaned all the yucky water and bleached the surfaces. If everything dries up just fine we may be able to simply paint surfaces and go from there. It'll take a bit of time to see if we'll need to do more. But it will be okay. We are in a good position to handle whatever comes our way. Not everyone in our community is in as good of a spot. Luckily we seem to have lots of helpful hands looking out for us all.

I love the rain. I really do. But I think we've had enough for awhile. Bring out the sun!