Flash Flood @ Home

We were traveling back home last night and found ourselves surrounded by water. What should have been a pasture was a lake and there was about 4 -6 inches of rushing water over the road. Matters got worse when we realized that the bridge back to the school campus and home was under about 3 -4 feet of water. Here is our poor car after having a river of mud flow over it. Luckily, Subaru has a height adjuster on the struts and we were able to raise the car about 2 inches by pushing a button.

At one point, the cafeteria was helping to redirect the "river" which was moving fast and about 3 -4 feet up the outside wall of the cafeteria. Miraculously, not a drop of water got into the cafeteria because the doors were packed shut with mud, straw and sticks. The dorms didn't fair as well. The girl's dorm had one wing which flooded (about 1 -2 inches). The boy's dorm flooded about 6 - 8 inches (1st floor). One of the stairwells was about 5 feet deep at one point and it was decided not to open that door.


Many of us staff worked late in the dorm to get the water out as well as all of the storage (for students and the dorm). There were a few wet boxes but most wasn't too bad. We lost several mattresses in the guy's dorm and the carpet is an absolute mess.

Here is a news report from KREM 2 on the flood. At about 1 min is the beginning of the report. You'll see a dodge ram sitting outside a building. That truck was parked in front of the cafeteria. Our grounds are a wreck and our student workers are gone so it will be a long time coming to fix things back up again.

Several people's homes flooded. We had some flooding in our basement but not too bad. The basement normally floods anytime it rains (because the house is so old). There was more this time. It got into the big room in the basement. There was one staff house where they got about 200 gallons out of the hallway.

Here are some photos (all were shot when the water was lower so you can see things rather than something that just looks like the ocean).

It was washing over the railroad tracks. At this point, the water was only about 2 -3 feet deep over the road.
This is the airstrip.
Our cafeteria after the water was subsiding. You can see pieces of the road that were torn up by the water too.
Behind the cafeteria. Remember: The cafe does have a basement (which was filled with and under water at this point). Now this whole area is about a foot of mud.
The bridge to the church was also under water. This is about 3 trees (20 - 40 ft) all stuck under the bridge.
No one knows were this bail came from. It is a big one. The Mrs. is standing next to it (no trick photography).
The Mrs. marks the water line for the "river" which was rushing past the sign. Behind the sign, it was much deeper.

So all in all, I'm glad this wasn't graduation weekend and that no one is here. Yet, it would be nice to have an army to help put things back together. No one died so I guess this is the perfect tradgedy!

Soggy Salutations, Greekspeedoman