Last night I was entertaining the kids in our room, trying to get them wound down and ready for bed, when all of a sudden Keturah says to me, “Mommy, look! There’s a river in our house!”
I look over and sure enough a flood of water was pouring in under the door of our family room.
This was the very first heavy rain of the season — a real tropical storm! And being that our house is build on the side of a hill the water was literally pouring down the side of the hill and right in through the door of our house.
Fortunately, we were able to catch it quickly enough that there was no damage done by the flooding. We were able to put down towels to block the different rooms of the house to keep the water contained in the family room, and everyone worked hard at scooping up the water and pouring it into basins.
Everyone pitched in to help clean up the water, including the two students we currently have living with us. The kids both thought it was great fun to play in the water and “help” clean up the mess.
Of course, Caleb’s idea of “helping” was often counter productive, since in his eagerness to help move water from one place to another he was often taking water OUT of the basins and dumping it back on the floor. Both Caleb and Keturah were laughing and having a great time of it, though, and in spite of the huge amount of work and horrible mess the flood made we were all able to laugh about it and stay focused on the positive aspects of the experience.
One thing that helped us to keep a positive perspective on things was to count the blessings . . .
First of all, we were very thankful that it happened at a time when we were all still awake and could respond to the flood in its earlier stages. How much harder it would have been if this had happened in the middle of the night when we were all asleep — there would have certainly been a lot of damage done if the water had managed to flow into the bedrooms or storage room in our house; we are thankful, indeed, that we were able to keep the water contained to the family room and spare the other rooms in the house from flooding.
Next, we are very thankful that the flood happened while the two students were with us in the house. Flavin and Robartine were both a huge help in using towels and squeegees to keep the water away from the children’s mattress (which currently sits on a mat on the floor) . . . just trying to save the valuable spring mattress was a huge help! They also stayed through to the end and helped wash the mud and debris that had been carried in with the murky water. It was a hard, dirty job, but they stuck with it to the end.
Also, we were very thankful that in spite of having an estimated 50 – 100 gallons of water flooding our house there was no permanent damage done; so we really thank God for that!
The next day, Sammy met with the plumber to see about digging a trench to redirect the water and hopefully find a more permanent solution to prevent this from happening again.
All in all, it was quite an adventure — but one we hope we don’t have to deal with again any time soon!
African Pioneer 