What a day this has been!

Wow! What a day this has been! Sara and I headed out this morning to drop her off at work, and then I was to take Kita to the Rome Vet. I kind of wondered how the roads would be. It was still raining and was supposed to continue for the rest of the day, as well as the next two. I went over Cadis road and it was flooded in many places, but then made it to Rome without incident.

I knew that the biggest challenge was coming up. I had to pick up the kids from Kelly for their weekly all day stay while Kelly goes to clean and so forth for her grandparent's. I cut up over the hill towards Orwell Hill and, wow! Water was literally running off the hills in sheets. It was flooded everywhere! And pretty deeply flooded. I got to Kelly's and told her quite frankly that I didn't know if I could get home or not and was concerned about taking the kids in my car. She said she pretty much had to go to her grandfather's today because he had been taken to the hospital again last night. We settled on a plan to both head out, her leading and me following, and trying to pick our way home. The flooding was terrible and we finally came to a bridge where there was no way! We turned back and went all the way around by LeRaysville and Christianson's. Woodland Lake was flooding across the road but we went through that okay. It took us almost an hour for the normally 10 minute trip from their house.

By the time we got here Kelly had decided she didn't want to try to go anywhere but getting the kids back home. She called her Mom and arranged things with her and then she started home with the kids. I heard from Gary that they did make it home, almost an hour later, they have no power, and now their road has washed out at the end of their drive and they can't get in or out! Luckily Jamie had come home earlier in the day after Kelly told him how bad it was, so they are all together.

It is bad. Very bad. We have never had this much flooding, not even back in the big flood several years ago. It's nothing like the wildness of last week's bout with Hurricane Irene. It's a deceptively calm rain. Like an army that seeks to overwhelm with sheer numbers rather than any true finesse or skill. This rain is quiet...peaceful...just incredibly prolific! It just keeps coming.

We have 17 inches of water in the basement. The freezer is floating, all the food having been emptied out and moved over to the freezer at the pond, thank goodness! Who knows what will work after the water goes down. We may have already lost our furnace, hot water heater, and freezer. The sump pump is constantly running but there's just no keeping up. I am exhausted!

Gary is stranded at work, unable to get home. Sara is going to stay at the Klett's tonight. I'm not scared to be alone. It's just that I would rather have my family here where they belong during this thing. Gary said that a dam broke in Little Meadows and that the National Guard was being brought in for evacuation. Crazy. And it just keeps coming. The forecast doesn't look clear of rain for the rest of the week. And it's not just a chance of rain, it's 50, 70, 90, 100% chance of continuing through the rest of the week. Yikes.

Oh well. We are all safe and alive. Better than some have faired in these stormy times we've had. We'll deal with our losses and figure something out. Hang in there all. ~