Spring Flooding

The weather here this year has been anything but normal. Snow, and now tons of rain. This weekend we had flooding in our back yard. At the back of our property we have a small creek. Small being in the six years we have lived here it has normally only been about1-2 feet deep. It is about 20ft wide and then the bank goes down about12ft. The day before the snow storm a while back the creek got really high, but not out of it's banks. It was amazing to see it that full. This morning Aaron left for work, he was on OB call at the hospital, and I could hear it raining outside. The kids were kind to let Scott and I sleep in a bit, and when I finally got up about 10am, I went to look out back and I was in shock. I expected a puddle in the backyard, there is one spot that doesn't drain well, but not this.

Our whole back yard area that we redid last summer was full of water. The creek that was normally about 20ft wide, was now almost 200ft wide. The water was rushing by, not just puddling up. I grabbed the video camera to tape a bit then called Aaron at work. The fence was starting to lean and water was coming through under the fence from the neighbors yard. I agreed to call Aaron back if the fence broke. I pulled the video camera back out right as the six foot privacy fence started to break. I was so upset, and so suprised and how powerful that water was. Our fence builder did an excellent job building our fence, and each post was down 3-4feet with a whole bag of cement on each post. It was rock solid. It's almost unbelievable how strong water can be.

It's hard to see all your hard work be covered in water in a few minutes. Very humbling that's for sure. Water started pouring in along with mud and muck and tons of boards and other random stuff floating over from the next three nieghbors houses. I was standing on the fence under the carport when I see our neighbor two houses down and his son and friends wade over to our fence, hang their coats on the post and start putting long boards up to support our fence and keep it from collapsing. It was amazing to me to see true service and love of friends in action. They saved the rest of our fence from falling and more important restored my faith in the helpful hands of friends and neighbors. I am truly grateful for them.

In the end, it's just a fence. We are very grateful the water didn't rise any further and damage our home or cause us to have to leave. I thought of those dear families whose lives were devastated after Katrini and took years to rebuild. My heart definitely feels for them now. Brianna wanted to write about this on her blog and I love what she wrote.
"Anyways, my mom called him and talked to him but he couldn't do anything. When she went back outside the fence was broken and the water started to pour in. It was horrible. Then she came in and told all of us to go to our rooms and to start praying to Heavenly Father and ask him to please have the rain stop. We did and when we came out there was a miracle waiting for us. Our neighbors came over and started to put the fence up and put long pieces of wood under it. the water was so deep that it went up to a grown man's waist.I was so happy to see my mom happy. I was really scared."
Among many other things learned through this, I have seen my children see the power of prayer. Within 20minutes of them praying all of a sudden the water started to do down and almost disappear. It was amazing. I am grateful my faith is strengthen in these times, and that my children recognize that miracles still do happen.