Here comes the rain...

On Monday, we got a lot of rain... and fast. And, sadly for moms picking up kids from school, it came right around 3 pm. (And, I got so caught up with other things that I forgot to take more photos - this is pretty early on in the "flood.")

We got over 5 inches in a couple of hours and got the worst flooding we've seen in our 11 years here - even worse than a tropical storm & a hurricane! Thankfully, it was only the streets that flooded. But, moms & kids were stuck in their cars in various driveways - we had a mom & kids next door to us and another mom across the street. And, kids were stuck at the school. And, cars were flooded in the street.

We had a lady who drove into the intersection near us and her car stalled. We sat and visited with her for over 2 hours. And, we had a great visit, though I was sorry for the cirucumstances!

We watched as buses continued to drop kids off - and run over our trash can. We had to laugh when the bus driver honked at this new friend's stalled car because she wanted it to move. And, then we sympathized with her as she pulled her window down and had to yell at the kids several times to be quiet.

The good part in all of this was seeing how neighbors helped neighbors. And how teenagers helped out!

Four teenagers pushed this lady's car out of the flooded water and down to her house 2 blocks away. Two of the teenagers retrieved my trashcan, recycle bin, and some wooden boards that had floated away.

It was sad to see moms & kids walking by in the high water trying to get home. And, an older gentleman came by in his dress slacks and tennis shoes. Another father carried his toddler son AND his school-aged daughter across the flooded intersection.

There was a funny moment, though. We saw was a squirrel who swam across the flooded street. None of us realized they would swim! I guess he or she had to get home!

I'm sorry for the damage caused to so many people - mainly to their cars like the lady we visited with. But, I'm thankful our houses were safe. (When a car drove by, the water got within a foot of my garage! And, our pool crested, but it's done that several times.) I know other people are dealing with drought, so I pray we all get the kind of weather we need at this time.