Flood 2011

So, the flood of 2011 has come and gone...well, sort of, part of my road is still flooded and closed. We fared MUCH better than many, but I thought I would post about our ordeal anyway. Before you read this, please take a minute to pray for the many who were affected by this mess, especially for those who already went through this during the flood of 2006 and for at least one friend of mine who lost her house (between her and her husband they have 4 children going through this with them).

So, Wednesday morning, I dropped Peter off at work because we were in dire need of diapers for John. So, my plans were to hit the FRC, so Ray could play for a bit and I could nurse John somewhere other than the car in the downpour and the hit Price Chopper for diapers. I got to the FRC and we started listening to the radio...schools were closing early and things looked bad. So, we headed out early, went to the store and went home. At about 4:30pm, Peter called and said they were closing the store early. I left the kids with our neighbors and went to get him at about 5:30pm...they were behind because most of his people left due to the start of the flooding....we got home a little after 7pm and the power died for the 1st time. It came back on just after 9 or so...only to die again in the middle of the night. Peter left for his paper route only to return home because he had no way of getting to Tioga Terrace to deliver his papers...roads were flooded. A little after 4am (before the power died for good), our phone rang and said we should evacuate....we called the sheriff and found out that all the roads to the shelters from our place were closed...we were stuck. Actually we were on an island of sorts as the road was flooded on either side our our complex, but not right out in front of us.
After having no power for a while and then losing water as well....our across the hall neighbors found a way out on some back roads and we followed them on Friday morning to her mom's place in PA. We had to go through the PA Gamelands and on some questionable roads, but we got there. I was a wreck the whole time. From her mom's place, they got us to the highway and helped us figure out via internet which roads were actually open. From there, we headed to my mom's near Pittsburgh, PA. We spent time there till Monday, when we were able to find out (thanks to friends in Facebook) that roads were opening and power was back. We arrived home around midnight.

I am glad that God found us a way out and kept us safe. I am also glad in an odd way, that we were forced down to my moms....it gave me a chance to see my Pap who may not be around much longer. I am glad that Peter's jobs were mostly understanding. I continue to pray for those who were hit bad.