May 12 2008
Tornadoes and Floods
Last Thursday night, I put out the garbage and there was a thick humid feeling in the air that midwesterners know to fear. Soon, a storm came into Stafford. The thunder was pretty intense and the lightning quite bright. I know tornadoes are not common in Virginia, so I wasn’t all that concerned. However, at 2300, I decided that the storm sounded bad enough to warrant me checking the National Weather Service online. Actually, being a Meloch, I can make up any excuse to check the weather. So, I logged onto the National Weather Service, entered my town of Stafford, Va and read the following, “A tornado warning has been issued for Stafford, VA. A tornado has been spotted, seek shelter immediately.” Ignoring the urge to scream, I immediately ran upstairs, woke the kids and took them down into the basement. The power flickered once , the rain poured down, and I prayed. We all slept in the basement that night. Abby slept on Dale’s recliner and being a true Manry said it was a very comfortable place to sleep. Josiah slept on a pile of beanbags. Gabe inflated air mattresses for himself, Zeke and I. As I was laying on the air mattress, all I could think was, “I am so glad we are not moving this summer and I won’t have to sleep on this for 3 months.” The next morning, we discovered that the tornado struck approximately 15 miles away. We saw some of the damage of snapped trees and missing windows. However, last night we realized that spring was not done with us yet. Another storm came through that dumped 3 - 4 inches of rain on Stafford County. My clean gutters decided they preferred to be clogged and rain poured off them and soaked the ground which overwhelmed my basement walls. From 2100 - 0100 last night, I attempted to stop the water. Gabe, who goes on duty during storms, and Josiah hauled all the toys and rugs upstairs and got everything off the floor. Josiah didn’t complain with his Wii and DVR under threat. I had placed a large rolling garbage can next to the porch under the largest stream of water coming off the gutter and would periodically walk out into the pouring rain and haul it to the curb to dump it. I was quite the sight at 0030. I would then return to the basement and lay down multiple towels and wring them out into a large pail and then dump the water from the pail into the utility sink. That was exhausting work. I thought of all the people I had seen on the news over the years filling sandbags to stop a flood. How they keep going is beyond me. I was so tired, it was difficult not to give up and admit defeat. Throughout this process, I was thinking of the Army’s favorite motto of “Work Smarter, Not Harder!”, but in moments of crisis, more efficient actions always escape me. At 0100, I was too exhausted to stand and went to bed praying that the water would not flood the entire basement. This morning, Gabe woke up and performed the damage assessment. The boy is destined to be an Engineer. After dropping the kids off at school, I drove to the home improvement store and purchased Dale’s Father’s Day gift: a 12 gallon wet/dry vac. I put it together and tested it out to make sure it worked. I’m sure he’ll love it.
Is my chair OK?
Thank You Jesus for keeping them safe!
Is my chair ok? …lol Dale Russell…..
I’m quite sad to say that your chair survived the flooding unscathed.
Hey Mugs…sorry you had to deal with that. The Gawinski’s had flooding too in their basement…Anything we can do to help? Next time, call at o dark thirty and we can give a hand. Many hands make light work…I hope Dale likes his Father’s Day present =) I also hope you won’t have anymore occasions when you have to use it!
I was sorry to read about Jim’s death and I will pray for his friends and family.
I continue to ask for God’s protection for Dale, our nephew Michael and the many others who are deployed. August can’t get here soon enough.
See you Thursday. Love, Meg
1-2 inches of rain are expected tonight so Meg offered to help me clean out the gutters. I told her, “It’s not that I can’t do it. It’s that I don’t want to do it.” Up on the roof this afternoon, as I was scooping out leaves, blossoms, sticks, mud, and stinky black water I thought, “Character is not developed when you do what you want to do. Character is developed when you do what you should, even when you don’t want to do it.”