January 7th 2009
The severe and sudden snow melt here on top of torrentially heavy rains has put our little community and all of Whatcom County in a state of emergency.
Crazy weather. The flood waters were and still are are rising around our house. Check out the Bellingham Herald’s website and photo gallery for the Whatcom Flooding. As several of the photos are from Lynden in my neighborhood.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/493/gallery/743630.html#http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2009/01/07/12/936-03.standalone.prod_affiliate.39.jpgMy favorite photo is the guy on a jet ski in downtown Bellingham. Can you imagine that in downtown Portland? -Imagine someone riding a jet ski through flooded streets of downtown Portland or Seattle. Absolute madness!
It was an ordeal for Miles and I to leave our house yesterday morning. Miles had Bible study early with Jason at Woods at 6:00 am. His lil Chevy S10 truck barely made it out of the neighborhood. By the time it was time for me to leave at 7:30 the water had risen way higher and my SUV barely made it. The police were barricading the roads off completely and parking in large SUV’s with lights on telling people not to drive through the streets. All the streets surrounding our house were closed. I had to ask the police man to let me through. He said he thought I could make it to the Guide (an un-flooded road) to get to work but that there was no way I could get home. All the roads to our house were closed……I was the last one out.
So we would have to walk…in the muddy muck…up to our knees in some spots higher than that. CRAZY!
We had lost power at the house twice that morning and for most of the day which meant that the pump underneath our house was not working to help pump out all the water… that created a very uneasy scary feeling all day that did not go away. We were both working…not home…worrying about our house and the garage and what we would find when we got home. I called the neighbors who said the neighbors next door to us were flooded with water in their house! IKES! Miles decided since we had to walk it would be a good idea to leave work early and walk in the daylight if possible. He called me from a payphone after leaving LOGOS saying he had bought rubber boots to assist us in our long –soppy walk home. We planned on meeting up at a local hardware business parking lot to leave our cars overnight in safety…and walk home. I think at the time it was the closest place we could park to our neighborhood…. but it felt like a LONG WALK. The boots were men’s size 12 (way too big for both of us- but especially me but all that Fred Meyer had left). I waddled home like a penguin doing everything I could not to fall down and/or walk out of my boots, all the while praying that I could walk/waddle carefully -each step with purpose as to not splash the high and questionably murky water inside the boots. It was so high!
ick ick
Well we have had quite an adventure the past couple days. The good news is our garage is the only place that water entered our house…besides the foundation and crawl spaces. My husband and I walked home safely last night to see the KIRO 7 Seattle news truck in front of our house. It made the news! Of all of Lynden our neighborhood made the local news. Although not the situation to really be celebrating being the news” right?
Here is one of the new s stories. This particular one shows our house again. It flashes at the end. As the camera turns the corner to the left we are the little one level blue house. (more specifically our house is shown on the 56 second mark of the following video)
http://www.kirotv.com/video/18434072/WOW…(local being all the way in Seattle was pretty impressive). We were very lucky- blessed really…our neighbors have a lot of water inside their house and of course that means severe damage.
It was an uneasy – awful feeling knowing there was nothing one could do and the water kept rising. Many of our roads are still completely filled with water and debris as the river and creeks are running through it and have closed the roads …so we walked to our cars in the dark early this morning to get to work.
The rain if forecasted to continue to rain but the rains must have stopped at some point during the night because the water has receded some….although the rain is supposed to come all day…
What at adventure.
As soon as I get my pictures uploaded I will post them. It still is so weird. So very strange seeing a lake outside our front door. No sidewalks, no road, no grass…just water . Our landlords jokingly told us that they were going to up our rent because now we have lakeside property. Very funny. So true! I thought we should get a boat. It is easier and faster to row than walk like a penguin. I still laugh at the picture I have of this huge mountain of snow that was outside our house in the street but then the murky waters rose and it melted part of it but still lifted this huge pile of snow off the ground. We had a floating ice burg floating up and down the street in front of our house. It was so funny.
And I thought the snow was pretty.
Boy was I wrong.
I don’t think anyone was expecting this.
And as I said before ………..we are so thankful!
Thank you Melissa for a wonderful time. I had so much fun with you and will miss you.
