January 12th, the day following the flood, was a day that was heaven sent. I know, sounds contradictory, but your ordinary person will have no desire to drop everything, literally risk their health to come get knee deep covered in filth, for me. My friends, you see, are angels on earth.
From morning until night, friends and strangers came by the dozens ready to get down to work in order to help the boys and I. I don’t have any family living locally so I couldn’t call my mom and dad to come over and help. But I am incredibly fortunate to have the most amazing friends who ARE my family. My family in blue also came to the rescue. All the surrounding police departments put out a blast to inform their own that the boys and I were in need of help. There was a myriad of people in and out all day from police departments in the area all getting filthy and working their tails off.
The amount of work that needed to be done was overwhelming to me, yet it didn’t phase everyone else. Stations and groups were organized and the work began. Word was spread for people to bring packing materials and cleaning supplies for disinfecting. Groups of girls took each of the four bedrooms and packed up what could be salvaged. Keep in mind that everything was a muddy, wet, nasty, smelly mess so if something could be salvaged it most likely needed to be wiped down and disinfected. Another group was in the kitchen packing up items in the top cupboards that were untouched. More manned the pantry, closets and the mud room. People were carrying out furniture that could possibly be salvaged to another group who was waiting to wipe down and disinfect. Trucks were waiting and ready to make runs to the dump with what was ruined. A constant flow of these runs continued through the day.
Living on the property we did, with a barn, a shop and 4 garages, we had a lot of toys. All of our dirt bikes had been flipped on their sides by the rushing waters and were now covered in mud. Same with the dune buggy, riding lawn mower, and bicycles. All of my brand new, still wrapped in plastic appliances, were all on their sides, ruined. Mike’s military jeep, a fishing boat, motorcycle trailer, pool table, foosball table… everything was coated in the disgusting mud.
But my friends came to the rescue. Trucks with trailers arrived and all 6 dirt bikes were loaded up and taken directly to the shop to be fixed. Mike’s jeep was taken to a mechanic who specialized in this type of vehicle. Bicycles were cleaned. Friends even loaded up all of Mike’s guitars and took them straight to Guitar Center to hopefully be saved. Mike’s gun collection was loaded up and taken to the police department’s gun range to be cleaned and saved. I could go on and on about how many people took some of our most precious items and made it their mission to salvage them for us. And they did!
God saved two of our most valuable and important items though. Mike’s street bike was still parked at the police department where he had left it. Our toy hauler camping trailer was still at a friend’s house who was working on the roof for me. Thank you, Jesus.
Friends saw that boxes and boxes of photos were soaking wet so a group made it their project to save them all. A few of the guys found scrap wood around and some built high tables. They laid out every single picture, book, award, diploma, card, and letter to dry. A few people took home bins of wet items to dry out at their homes.
When I say that this day was heaven sent, I mean it. I could have never, ever accomplished what was done that day without the support and help of those selfless people. God may have allowed this flood to happen and for this mess to be left, but he never, ever left me alone. He sent so many people to lift me up and make sure the boys and I were taken care of.
The day didn’t end there. A group of guys demo’d the kitchen and bathrooms. Basically, by the end of the day, the house was completely ready for the professional clean up crew to come take over. Time to make flood cuts in the drywall, pump out the water under the house and dry everything out to start rebuilding.
But once again, God had completely different plans for us. The floods continued. Not one more time or even two. The rains didn’t stop, the levee was never fixed, which meant my home continued to flood five more times. This was God directing me down a different path than I had designed for myself.
