Today in church, I learned that several families were flooded by the storm, some worse than others. Our pastor's home did not have water in it, but his garage and a shed where they had a number of things stored were flooded and much was ruined. It made quite an impact on his life. His sermon today was one of the best as he talked about how close we are to Christ's coming, and that we must leave everything behind. After all, it's only stuff. Things can be replaced, our lives cannot. He said that he had had a dream two weeks ago that he was looking out his windows and the house was surrounded by water. When he went back in on Monday by boat to get some papers, he opened the front door and the back door and the house was surround by water. Their house had been built higher off the ground which kept it from flooding. Another family in the congregation suffered quite a bit of damage. The pastor and his wife threw some things in the car on Sunday evening and left. One other car came out behind them and they were the last ones to drive out of their neighborhood. The rest and to be rescued by boat. He later asked a neighbor when they saw the water around their house and water coming up out of the drains, why they didn't leave. Because the street was dry and they didn't think it would get that bad.
In 1998, we had just moved to Ohio. It was Saturday night and we had friends who were spending the night. It had been raining all day. There was a tiny stream that ran back of the trailer only about a foot wide, but it had been getting larger during the day. About 2AM I was suddenly awake. I looked out the window and saw the water was almost up to the level of back of the trailer which sat on a sloping lot. I went to the front windows and looked out. I could see the park's owner's wife was throwing things into the back of a pickup truck. At the far end I saw a couple of cars pulling out and could tell from their headlights that water was already standing there. I woke everyone up and said we had to leave. We grabbed what we could and loaded into the car. The problem was, you don't think straight. You see trouble coming and you have to go, so what do you grab? What do you do with things? Ed and one friend went from door to door banging on them trying to wake people up to get out. Not much response. We learned later than many of them had to carried out. They didn't get any other warning, except a fire truck at the end of the driveway with its light on. I felt sorry for our next door neighbors. They had just bought the place, and were gone on vacation. What a shock when they got back.
Since our friends lived up on a hill, we went up there. That was early Sunday morning. The next morning we tried to get back in, but we weren't permitted as it was already underwater. We went back up on the hill. It would be Wednesday before we were able to get back in and start the cleanup. It takes weeks and months to recover from a disaster. Just the shock and stress is difficult to deal with, no matter how much faith you have. Faith and trust in God get you through it, but you still suffer the results. I learned then that stuff is just stuff. I lost most of my wedding photos and many other photos especially my daughter's baby pictures. Books, clothing, all the furniture was gone. I was thankful that most of our SOP books were up higher than the flood came and were OK. We had to replace the large periodical volumes. It took me several years to replace the Youth Instructor's articles. The Bible my sister had given me years before was gone. But my grandfather's Bible was fine. A box of sewing patterns had ridden out the flood like Noah's ark, the plastic bin they were in floated.
We were told that everything was contaminated and to get rid of it. I couldn't think of getting rid of my appliances. How would I replace them? So we hauled them off to storage until we found a new place to live. They sat in storage for a few weeks which let them dry out completely. When we cleaned them up, hooked them up, they all ran. The washer needed some work, but ran another two years (it was already several years old). The dryer, which was only 3 month old, ran until early this year. The freezer was still running when I gave it away when we moved last fall. I made 3 trips to the laudramat and filled all the huge washer each time. I lost a few things that were badly stained, but the bed linens and clothes were in good shape. God was merciful then, and He has been merciful this time. Hold loosely the things of this world. They can always be replaced. They'll all be ashes before very much longer anyway.
