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| From April 2015 |
That would be two Fridays ago on the 3rd of May. The rain had started Wednesday or Thursday. Steady. Not overly impressive. But, on Friday, every time I went outside the rain had gotten heavier. I took the day care supplies to the car. I took Zupe to the car. I took everything into the day care. I came home. I went to work. Still, that was nothing. Mid-afternoon it let loose.
We live on the north side of Brisbane. I work a bit farther north. A little farther north - less than 30 min drive away (I've read recently that people from Ohio identify distance by driving time - there you go; it must be true!) was the place it rained the heaviest. Let me check the stats. I saved them.
About 4 PM I got a call from day care that the kids were being evacuated. I left. It was maybe 4:10. I remembered the way the little cut through road I usually take flooded earlier this year and chose the highway- where I sat unmoving for almost 30 minutes. Unmoving and without a phone to call to let the school know I was trying but unsuccessful. Five minutes before my "give up" time - the time I was going to stop the car and GET OUT INTO THE DOWNPOUR to beg a phone from one of the other dozens of stopped cars, the traffic started moving again. I drove through almost a foot of water, I'd guess. There and then again on Beams Road. I turned the little "u-turn" on Beams that is required to get to the day care and saw the lane into the center. Well, not really. There was no seeing that lane it was sincerely under water. As the evening was getting dark, very dar. I returned up Beams and took the left at the round-about to attempt the back way into the center. It was a good drive, until the road dipped down and who knows how deep the water was there!
I ended up parking in a high lot and wading the block to block and a half to the center. As I waded through knee deep water I thought about the new shoes I was wearing that I had to buy for work and I watched the unmoving traffic on Beams Road. I decided it looked very unlikely that I would succeed in driving home and that I would need to carry Zupe home. Or, maybe Kevin could.
I borrowed a phone at the center, after stripping out of my coat, my shoes and my socks, and called Kevin. He said he'd bring the stroller. I said "Do not bother."
He came through water over his knees and his knees are pretty high! Walking home it was even deeper than walking TO the center. The water washing across Beams was moving - that was fun! But, at least the deepest bit - in the train station parking lot - mid thigh on me - was still.
I left the car overnight. By morning the water was mostly someplace else. The photo above shows all that remained in the lane at the day care.
I am so thankful that we live close enough that we can walk to the day care and that Kevin is/was working from home. Carrying Zupe on my own, particularly where the water ran fast or those times I stepped into deeper holes, could have been treacherous.
My free lesson to you - socks really help keep your feet warm. I couldn't face putting my soaking socks back on to make the walk home and so I had only my nylon running shoes between me and the flood waters. Nylon = breezy in a watery sort of way. Breezy and cold. Yikes.
