May 8th flood anniversary

[SandyD]

10 years ago today, about 5:30pm cdt, I felt a couple of heavy rain drops as I got in my car for the drive home.

"This feels like flood weather," I thought.

It rained a bit on my way home, and continued to rain all evening. There were puddles in the street and yard, but nothing unual. Then about 9 o'clock, I noticed the water was up to the sidewalk, and the yard was more of a puddle than solid ground. By 9:30, the water was halfway up from the sidewalk to the house. I found my flood shoes and pulled my car up as far as I could.

Never had water in the house, so I wasn't really worried. At about 10pm, the rain was no longer falling in drops. It was coming down in sheets. And soon, I could no longer see my yard. Still, the rain continued, and I was beginning to worry ... what do I have to bring up to the second level.

It finally stopped raining ... I've really forgotten the time ... but even after midnight, I was still watching the news. The birds were making quite the racket. I expected to see ducks swimming by any moment.

I was lucky. Just got a little water in the laundry room ... had to replace a few tiles and a bit of insulation. Others were not so lucky.

500 year flood, they called it, but that doesn't mean much. We'd seen two 100-year floods in the previous 20 years.

One of the meteorologists said as he went off the air ... now imagine that with 140-mile an hour wins ...

I was looking for a foam brick to throw at the TV.