Monday, April 18th, 2016 began the journey. We woke after a night of tornadoes and hail to flooded streets. Michael told his boss he might be in late because we had such a rough night. After looking out the window, we realized how comical that was. We couldn't get out. The water was 1/3 up the driveway and the streets were definitely under water. Unfortunately, the rain kept coming. We realized within a short time that we needed to start making preparations. Michael got out in the garage and started cutting wood blocks to put under furniture...just in case. We prioritized and started taking our most irreplaceable or most expensive furniture and putting it on two 1" blocks of wood. Rugs and small tables went upstairs. After we had finished, Michael cut more wood and we started on the 2nd round. Michael also grabbed several cases of water from the garage before it got too high. By midday we were within 5" of cresting the slab and the water was now lapping the entrance to the garage door. Mid afternoon the heavens calmed and the waters started recede. We were rejoicing that we could again start counting the bricks on our mailbox. What had started as an 8 horizontal brick exposure had gone to about 6 bricks by midday but was beginning to reveal the missing bricks again. The streets were still flooded, but the water had receded out of the driveway enough to have the kids wade to the end for pictures. Michael and I did a bit of exploring as we walked down to Cypresswood along the neighbor's yards. The water in the street was about 3 ft tall and a bit taller as Michael got all the way down to cypresswood. All day, we had been watching folks floating by on rafts or canoes. Some were evacuating, many just enjoying a day off of school. We chatted with our catty-corner-behind-our-house neighbor. He told us he was going to be up all night because more rain was projected. We asked him to call us if anything changed. We took our bed down from its perched position and went to bed in our master bedroom for the last time for a while...
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5:00 am Tuesday, April 19th, 2016. We received a phone call that woke us from our sleep. It was our neighbor telling us that despite no rain, somehow the water had continued to rise overnight. I was so thankful at that moment that we had that phone call. We looked outside and sure enough, the water was already at the peak that it had reached on Monday. We put the bed back up again. We raised a few other pieces that had not made the second round on Monday. We started to put soup cans/tuna cans/or bean cans between the two blocks of wood. I was thankful to have a husband who believes in being well-prepared. We began to empty the bottom drawers/shelves of cabinets. Our children (who never sleep late) did not stir, despite all our noise, until 8 am! We had three hours to work. Raising the piano onto boards. The huge armoire in our bedroom. And other items. We started stacking magazines against the wall as our futile sandblock. At 7:45 we heard from the neighbors behind us that they already had 1-2" of water in the house. Then it was just a waiting game. We had done all our preparation and were just waiting to see what happened. We no longer could get in or out of the garage to get stuff. It was under water. Even more maddening was when the sprinklers went on...we watched helplessly as a few were under water but the rest added to the outdoor water. No way to get to garage to kill them, and we decided it wasn't going to make a difference anyways. At about 9:30 or so, the first water entered the house in our bedroom. At first, I thought it might just creep in and only just sit there. Unfortunately, rather quickly, the magazines were floating. We put up a barrier to the living room hoping that we could keep the water to just the bedroom. Meanwhile, we started seeing signs of water in the back room and then the study. And at that point, the water just started flowing in from every point. The kitchen was last to fall. By 10:45 we had 1" of water everywhere except the back room where we had about 2" because it is sloped down a bit. And the water kept coming... We began to now take a second survey and started stacking two blocks of wood and two cans. Many pieces of furniture were completely precarious, but none fell! And God gave my husband super human strength to lift the piano all by himself onto the soup can that I shoved under. And the buffet (weighing more than the piano), and the armoire, and the couches, and the tables, and the bed, etc... etc...etc... I honestly don't know how he did it--except by God's power! After we had saved as much as we could, Michael started moving the electronics upstairs. Amazingly, we still had power and internet! (many others had lost power and would not have power for hours after our flood) After the bottom of the doors were completely underwater, we could not longer see the water gushing from below. We used the mailbox as our indicator of rising waters. We got to only 2 1/2 horizontal bricks exposed. [each brick is 3" and about 1" mortar between--this is about 18" above where it was at flooded level the day before.] I started measuring the water in our house at some point. The water was 3" deep at the stairs but more like 4" deep in lots of the rest of the house since that is one of the highest points of our house. I was thankful for our upstairs. We were dry and safe upstairs. Every time we slogged through the filthy, cold water in the house, I was overcome by such a surreal feeling. And actually a bit of release of stress momentarily. The waiting game was over. We started to think about "What next?" The water outside was not going down (although it was not going up either). We saw many rescue boats. The sheriff were out multiple times through the day with their airboats. Other government departments were doing the same. Strangers were offering assistance. We debated about evacuating. I didn't want to leave Michael alone but I wasn't sure about the kids and I staying. We prayed about it and received very clear direction when our Sunday school teacher offered to come get us in his kayak if we wanted to evacuate. We no longer felt the urgency to take the immediate evacuation aid. We decided to wait it out and asked Steve to be on standby. At 7 pm or so, the water started receding. And when it started, it was fast. In just 3 hours the water was only 3/4". By midnight, it was all gone except a thick layer of very slick slime and puddles scattered around. By morning, the floors were even half dry to the eye.
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Wednesday, April 20th, 2016. The water had definitely left the house but more heavy rain was expected for the next 4 or 5 days. And the water outside was still almost as deep as it had been the previous day. It was overwhelming to feel so trapped. No one could come or go except by boat. By around 10 am, I gained great insight into Noah's emotions. How incredible it must have been to see that olive leaf plucked in the bird's beak! I started seeing a blade or two of grass on our front lawn! Hope! By noon, the water was definitely receding but the streets were still quite flooded. Our neighbor almost flooded out his engine in a big F-250 truck trying to get to the house. Steve asked about sending out an email to the class to get a few volunteers to come help us clean up. I was very hesitant because I did not want to risk anyone flooding out their truck. He promised to be careful when the time came. He sent the email (unbeknownst to me--I had several days of almost no time to access email and phone). I received a call at 2 pm from a class member who was asking about how to get in since he was sitting two blocks away and couldn't get in! I was a bit confused, not knowing Steve had sent out his email already. I offered to go meet Mark and direct him in...if he could make it. The water was still quite deep, but at the same time, another guy from class and Steve showed up in a F-250 and forded the water through to our house...barely making it. They then ferried tools from Mark's truck. Within half an hour, all three were working alongside Michael to pull out wet carpeting from closets, squeegeeing the floor, and pulling up baseboards and trim. Shortly afterward, others arrived. That first day we had 32 people from our class (as well as others from the church who had heard) pulling baseboards, cutting out 24" of drywall, and opening up the baseboards of all cabinets. A fellow classmate had given us the name of a contractor who used to specialize in flood remediation. David arrived that Wednesday afternoon and offered 4+ hours of his time to advise. Later, he went on to tell the neighbors (who had flood insurance and a professional team) that our volunteers were as good as any professionals.
9:00 am
(I kept wiping my feet on the mat upon entering! force of habit...)
12:00 pm
9:00 pm
meanwhile, earlier that day and proceeding days...
I can't wrap up all the emotions that were in those early days. Moments of grieving the loss, moments of exhaustion, moments of guilt, moments of feeling so overwhelmed by God's love...also bringing me to tears. It is this last one that I want to camp on for the rest of this post.
We were asked to give our testimony in church on Sunday. I wondered what God would have us say. I pondered for a couple of days and kept coming back to His love as displayed through the love of our friends who were helping us so immensely. On Friday, something happened, that I knew immediately was the testimony we were given to share. Here is that testimony:
Yesterday was “Serve Saturday” at our church. Our life group decided to get a head start. We started on Wednesday. Our house was one of the many flooded houses in Houston this last week. Only about 4 hours after our road was passable and even before anything but a F-250 truck could get through, our life group had mobilized and was at our house with all the necessary supplies. The first day we had 32 different helping hands from both our current life group as well as previous life groups. The church staff were among those out in the community and in our home. All told, we had over 60 different people helping over the four days. Many were helping for hours and hours at a time and would return the next day to do it all over again. We had folks tear out sheetrock, baseboards, insulation, floors, and haul trash. The contractor who provided us with hours of help at no cost to us, said, the work was as good as any professional. There were others who provided meals, drinks, snacks. Still others provided supplies or a shoulder for me to cry on. God’s love was displayed so lavishly on us that I often found myself in tears. The perfect example was seen on Friday. We had been told by several experts that we must have dehumidifiers if we were hoping to avoid mold growth and even more cost in replacement of all cabinets. We had a couple that purchased us two dehumidifiers. When I suggested we pay for them, I was overwhelmed by their response. They had received some money as a gift many months previously. They had set aside the tithe on that and were prayerfully considering its use. When they went to pay for the dehumidifiers, it was the exact amount as the tithe. As they told me, “That is God. He knew this flood would happen and was already preparing the way for you all to recover in a way that would bring glory to His name. He is the one who provide the machines. You are loved by a mighty God!!” So, as I think back over this week and some of the most challenging days we have had, I am amazed at the love of a faithful God who has provided so bountifully through our Christian body.
Another friend also said that same day, "God has shown Himself so gracious and good! He loves y'all so much..."
Even as contrary as it sounds, I keep coming back to the memorial stone heap reminder that God loves us! This was not a mistake. We are right in the center of His plan--His plan to be blessed and be a blessing. He has already shown us his bountiful love and provision through the love of His own people. The journey has just begun and we have a long road in front of us. One that will likely still be full of tears... May the tears bring me back this truth--A Mighty God loves me!
1 comment:
Happy Wednesday, lunch buddy. Praying for you.
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