Except this year we had a huge interruption: historic flooding in Columbia, SC.
Saturday was pretty normal. We watched the morning session. We went to a friend's house to watch the afternoon session. (Between watching it in Spanish and having 4 little kids running around, that was interruption enough to miss about 50%). After finishing, we were casually talking about how the much-talked-about-hurricane was going back out to sea and wouldn't hit like expected. We thought it was funny that relatives were calling to see if everything was okay. (It was raining on and off, but nothing crazy.)
It continued to rain all night, and Hyrum woke up at 3 in the morning to dig a trench outside for the rain, to prevent flooding in our garage. [I'll elaborate on this tid-bit at the end of the post.] So he didn't get much sleep, and when the kids woke us up around 7 am, there was no electricity.
We figured out how to use our cell phones as wi-fi hot-spots so we could use our laptop to watch Conference. (So long as the laptop battery lasted.) Then shortly before the first session started we got a phone call from a guy in our ward. He said he lived in a second-story apartment, and the water was getting close to his house and he didn't know how he was going to get out. Hyrum said he'd call him back in a minute. We looked at each other and thought, "Maybe he's half-asleep and hallucinating?" There wasn't any flooding that we could see from our house, and it didn't seem to be raining that hard, but Hyrum called back and said he'd go get him.
When Hyrum got within a few blocks, there was a National Guard soldier (or active duty possibly?) directing traffic because the road was blocked off. (Flooded roads.) Then Hyrum saw a guy wearing a big trash bag nearby that turned out to be who he was going for. Turns out, some neighbors came buy in a blow-up boat 'rescuing' people from their apartments. It's pretty dangerous when you think about it, but I guess it's better than drowning. (They say to wait until official rescue boats come around, but most probably don't have that kind of patience with riding flood water.)
So we had a house guest for the next two and a half days. We were happy to help how we could, but I will say that it added to my stress as I was figuring out how to feed and take care of everyone with spotty electricity and water.
We watched part of the first session of conference after all of that excitement.
Shortly before the second session of conference, there was an alert that they might turn off the water, so we should store some. I filled several pots and containers with water, along with a bath tub. That interrupted a good chunk of the second Sunday session. I was most worried about not having hot/clean water to use for the girls' bottles. Fortunately, once the water stopped working, we got our electricity back, so we were able to heat the water we had on-hand.
The two difficulties from not having running water were 1) flushing toilets and 2) washing dishes. All the water I had in the bathtub mysteriously drained out (I guess the plug isn't so great... lesson learned.) I went out in the backyard with a big trash can and started filling it from the large puddles that were forming. It was gross water, but it did the job. I ended up trying to cook as little as possible because there wasn't a good way to get all the dishes clean. Once, I had to use two buckets of water to wash all the girls' bottles. By Monday people were starting to 'get out' again, and Hyrum ran to Walmart to buy some water and milk. There was quite a line, apparently. (Unfortunately, that was right about the time I was scheduled to do a 'big shopping trip', so while we had plenty of food --and food storage-- in the house, it was stuff that no one really wanted to be eating.)
Initially, there were water pick-up stations where you could get free water, but there were huge lines. By Tuesday afternoon, when I ventured to Walmart because I was SO bored of being stuck inside my house with children, there were no lines. I just drove up, popped open the trunk, and they put some cases of water inside before I drove on my merry way. Too easy. So in short, we never suffered for water.
The electricity went out a few more times, and was restored within a few hours. The problem in emergency situations is that you never know when it will come back on. You hope it's temporary, but also have to plan for a lot longer. (That stressed me out because I was continually trying to store hot water for the girls, and our thermos is only 24 oz.) I ended up not needing it, but you just never know.
Hyrum didn't have work Monday-Wednesday, and spent most days out helping people in the stake. There were a few people with flooded houses, so they were clearing out debris. (Tuesday we had beautiful weather, by the way; you never would have known there was rain!) Then the stake started sending people to help in other areas with other local organizations, doing demolition and such.
On Tuesday our house-guest left, but we were expecting my parents to come that night, so we were hurrying to clean and get everything ready. I was worried about the water situation (and told them to make sure and shower before they got here!) but fortunately, the water came back a few hours before their arrival, so we could all shower and flush toilets like normal.
The whole city was under a 'boil water advisory'. That continued for over three weeks, surprisingly. We had empty water bottles coming out our ears! They were really everywhere--the cars, the counter, the bathrooms, etc.
Things are finally back to normal.
What did we learn?
-First, we really need to get some large water storage containers. It's been on my mind for years, but I've just never bought them.
-It's worth it to just call minor situations like this an emergency and dig into our MRE supply. (Means in a bag, basically.) It's such a hassle to continue 'like normal' and cook real food when you're without water, electricity, or new grocery supplies. Especially if other people are staying with you. Also, once we get to a more permanent house (ie: not 6 months) we'll build more more of a day-to-day food storage.
-We thought through the 72-hour kits that we had, and what we would have done if our house were flooding. There are some items we need to add to our bags, including baby formula and laminated copies of passports/social security cards. Also, we really need to get a bigger thermos! (We have a camp stove we could have used if we got desperate, but what a hassle!)
Also, it's important to note that there are about 5 large man-made lakes in the area. Most (or all?) of them broke, meaning one side collapsed and the water went gushing elsewhere. That's the reason there was so much flood water. (I always think of flooding like a tsunami where the water rolls in from a big body of water, or rain gradually accumulating, but this was quite different.) There are some areas (nearby our house) that were completely submurged. Cars floating. Restaurant chairs floating. Etc. Crazy stuff. In the aftermath, there were several closed roads. They've done a good job of getting the main roads fixed, but the other day I was trying to get to the temple (normally an 11-minute drive) and all of a sudden I saw a road that said "Closed." So I went another way, only to find another closed road. I ended up taking the 20 minute route, which I guess would have been smart from the beginning. Who knows how long the smaller roads will be under repair. (Hopefully before the next time I go to the temple?)
 |
| This is one of the lakes from on post that broke-- you can see that break where all the water ran out. It washed away the road. |
Now, about the 3 am ditch-digging: this was a small tender mercy we experienced during the flooding.
It starts about a month before the "thousand-year" flood. There was a huge rain storm one afternoon. I was trying to rush out the door with three kids to get to a doctor appointment and Hyrum was trying to get to the DMV to register our vehicles. As we headed to the garage we noticed water was coming in and starting to rise. We had several boxes get wet (from the movers coming a few weeks prior) and it was difficult to get into our cars. Our door was about 3 inches high, and water was almost at 2 inches.
We were really annoyed, and called the yard maintenance people to come do something. Hyrum was delayed in his errands, but they showed up soon enough and dug a small trench from our driveway (where the water was gathering) to the backyard (where there's a drain.) It wasn't a perfect solution (and to this day we have chunks of grass just sitting in our yard) but it kept our driveway and garage from flooding.
Fast forward to the flood. Hyrum woke up in the middle of the night, and when he noticed it was raining so hard he was worried about the garage. He went downstairs and saw some water accumulating. So he grabbed his 3-foot Army shovel and went out to make the trench deeper and longer, so the water would actually make it to the drain. I think he was out there getting wet for over an hour. (Who knows what the neighbors would have thought if they saw him!)
We didn't have any flooding problems for the entire ordeal, and we were so grateful! Because I know once the flood hit, our "emergency" would have received very little attention; there were so many people in worse situations. (Not to mention, everything was closed on post, and I don't think the maintenance crew was even around until Tuesday.) By experiencing that inconvenience a few weeks before, we were saved from much bigger problems later on. All that to say, sometimes our problems actually work out to our benefit, so we shouldn't complain too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment