Here Comes The Rain (Again)

For at least the last two years, Georgia has been in a drought. Our main source of water has been way down. Last year, we went camping at a nearby lake and found ourselves standing right next to the "eight feet deep" marker of the beach area - and the water was still quite a ways from that marker. We've been blessed to received a bit more water this summer to help relieve the drought a little bit, but we were nowhere near prepared for the rain we've had over the past week.

It has rained and rained and rained and rained. At least six days straight of solid rain. It may have stopped for an hour here and there, but for the most part, constant rain. Nothing too problematic. Until Monday. Just to give you an idea of how much it rained - our friend's rain gage received 5 inches of rain in about 5 hours, interstates were closed due to flooding, schools were closed due to too much rain, our large lake (Lake Lanier) which supplies most of Atlanta's water went up over 3.5 feet in 5 days. That's a lot of rain.

We woke up Monday morning to a forecast of showers during the day. It wasn't raining when we walked Trinity to the bus stop (at 7 AM), but we knew it would probably be raining soon. And we were right. It started raining about mid-morning. A little after lunch, it really hit. We had hard, hard downpour from about 12:45-2:15 - only an hour and a half. But, what a 90 minutes that was.

Our lake-front property, or I mean, our front yard

Our street - almost completely covered by water

Around 1:45, Craig went outside checking the flowing water through out backyard - no, we don't usually have a pool or river back there, but we did on Monday. There is a drain between our property and our neighbor's and it was completely overflowing. It created a couple of waterfalls in our back yard and a very wide flow of water through our yard, our other neighbor's yard and to the street. He looked at me and said, "We may get some water damage inside on this one." We've never had any water damage before, but this rain was different than we had ever had.

Within 15 minutes, it was flowing into our basement. We felt blessed because it was only coming in on the playroom and unfinished side. We were also glad that most of the kids' toys were picked up from the floor in the playroom. So, we quickly began moving everything out of the room and over to the other side of the basement. Then we began sucking the water out with a couple of shop-vacs.

Even the spots that look dry are pretty wet.

About 20 minutes later, we noticed there was water coming in the finished side. Not a good thing. So, we suddenly moved over and began vacuuming up water on that side. Unfortunately, it was coming in faster than we could contain it. It soaked into the carpet and within a few hours, about 90% of our basement flood was wet. As we walked across the floor, the water would pool up around our feet. Our second move began - taking everything from our basement to our front room upstairs. Who really needs a StairMaster at the gym when you've got stairs and tons of stuff that need to be moved upstairs?

So, this week has pretty much been consumed by our wet basement. We spent over 10 hours vacuuming out water from the carpet. Tuesday morning we did the same until we spoke to a company to come extract the water Tuesday night. We took a brief break during the afternoon and just got out of the house. Wednesday, Craig was nervous about water seeping into the walls and creating a place for mold to grow. So, he took out all the baseboards to let the walls air out. We did all we could to continue drying the floors Wednesday, but to no avail. We realized that the company that came out just couldn't get out all the water (due to a few misunderstandings between us and them). So Thursday morning, Craig and I pulled up all the carpet and removed all the still dripping wet carpet padding. At this time, there are still a number of fans and "air movers" trying to dry out the last little bit of dampness.

It's our floating carpet, due to the air being blown in beneath

Carpet padding removal

Amid all this, we can still give God the glory. Some of our blessings are:

• The damage was fairly minimal. We didn't standing water, just a soaked carpet. People lost homes in this storm. People lost family members. The damage was to a part of the house we don't use too much and can afford to be without for a time being.
• We have been surrounded by loved ones and friends who God has used to help with the recovery. We've had people loan a huge fan and an additional shop-vac. People have volunteered to come help in whatever way they can. My family has helped out financially. I know we have been covered in prayer by those who know.
• I now have an opportunity and excuse to get rid of some of that basement stuff that I've been meaning to toss out. It's also creating the reason to redesign the basement to be more beneficial to our family.
• God has revealed some things in me that I've been pushing aside. This has given me the chance to really examine them.
• No matter what happens to us, it does not change the fact that God is still God, God is still in control, even when I'm not. Knowing that helps me rest in His peace.

This process is far from over, but it's beginning. Thanks for all those who have been there (and continue to be there) during this. Of course, Craig made a video for the occasion. Enjoy!!