The Flood 2007

It had rained a little each day for a couple days, the lawns were looking great, and the trees were budding or flowering out nicely. Many farmers had their seeds in the ground. Then around suppertime on Saturday, May 5, 2007, I could see lightning and I could hear the thunder. Yes, it started to rain. The TV weatherman did predict the possibility of a tornado so I kept my ears open waiting for the siren to go off. But it didn’t thank God!! The rain kept coming and in a couple hours the streets had streams of water. Then at about 8 o’clock the rain came down in a very hurried fashion and we got more rain in one hour then we usually get in the whole month of May. The rain kept up all night. Sometimes just a nice moderate rain fell and then a downpour would come. The lighting and the thunder were almost continuous until about 3 am. The back yard looked like a large lake. The front yard also had a couple small lakes in it. We had come through the night with one major leak, which was stopped when we finally found out how to shut the water off to this supply. The large elevator was not operating because of the water that had collected in the shaft. That did make it difficult for those of us who use wheel chairs to get around. We got to Mass, but the crowd was rather small. People just could not move around in many section of the city except by boats. Families were moving out of their homes with a few valuables wrapped in a plastic bag for fear that these water logged homes would collapse, some did! One of the hotels opened its door for people with out homes to come free of charge. The school for the blind also opened its doors to the homeless. A couple churches started food lines. One grade school had to close its doors temporally because it was surrounded by water. Meeting of city officials began. The newspaper with many pictures was printed and ready to be delivered. It took the delivery squad all day Sunday to find the people because homes were empty and surrounded by water. The Governor came and declared the mess a disaster. I just hope FEMA comes to the aid of these homeless families faster than it did in New Orleans. Farm field after farm field have been turned into lakes. Basement after basement were cleared of ruined furniture, carpet and even walls. Big dump trucks with healthy guards men came to collect the junk for disposal. The patches of grass and trees are a beautiful rich green, the likes that I have never seen before. There is nothing like lightning and rain to bring forth the nitrogen in the soil. The tree blossoms fell to the ground but the beautiful leaves are coming forth. The mosquitoes came by the millions. The City decided to spray Tuesday night and plan to have an airplane spray over the city on Friday night. According to the Mayor, the city water remains safe to drink, thank God for that!! Aberdeen is use to weather problems but usually it is a problem of being too dry not too wet. Graduation will take place as planned on May 12. The moral of this story is: ‘do not build a city on a lake bed.’