Jed and I have been married 10 years. In those ten years we have had THREE hundred year/great floods. I think a few recalculations need to be made. Out of all three I would say this was the most dramatic. #1 The freeway was wiped out. If Jed would have left work twenty minutes earlier he may have been trapped in the wreckage. If he would have left an hour later he may not have been able to make it home through Valley of Fire, which was eventually closed/backed up. We are grateful.
#2 We didn't have power for about seven hours. Once it got dark, I put the kids to bed and sat on the couch with a flashlight reading. The darkness didn't bother me. The thought that it was going to get hotter than Hades and all of my newly purchased groceries were going to be trash bothered me. I am very thankful Jed and I put together 72 hour kits in June. That month I had two dreams (which I do not deem prophetic by any means, I commonly dream bizarre meaningless things, if I attached meaning to all of my dreams I would have given birth to seven gummy bears by now) that we had to be evacuated from the valley and had nothing. I woke up with a strong need to buy water purification tablets, bar soap, flashlights and rope. It came in handy. I wish I would have had another flashlight but we got by. My brain went into creative mode and I remembered I had a flashlight/lantern thing I re-homed from an unfortunate boy scout who left his crap in my garage for over two years, note, that's the limit boys, two years. Jack and Jara had a play lantern in their camping set I used for a night light and I gave Elise my battery-operated candle. The mag-lite I kept off and used for outside if I had to venture out. It doubles as a weapon!
#3 One of the projects Jed's company is working on is the Cooper bridge in Overton. Right over the raging Muddy River. The bridge is still standing and the flood channel helped to save a lot of homes in Overton. However, the project sustained quite a bit of damage. Jed and I agree, better a job than a home, but Jed's blood pressure is on high-alert this week.
#4 Our sub-division had the river ten feet from our neighbors back fences. A little too close for comfort. Especially when you are home alone with three little people in the dark. I went outside to check on the animals and could hear it thundering past. Normally the river isn't even visible.
#5 A feeling of being trapped when I-15 was closed Northbound and Southbound. A time you pray no one needs to get to an ER.
Things I am grateful for
#1 We still had running water. I'll take power outage over water outage any day. People in Moapa and lower Overton were without both. I really didn't want to have to use my back-yard as a latrine.
#2 My kids made it home from school. Many kids were trapped in the lower or upper valley.
#3 Metro officers who helped out residents and patrolled the neighborhood checking on us
#4 Friends and family calling/texting to see if I was okay (they knew Jed was at the bridge) and expressing concern for Jed's project.
The aftermath/clean-up of the bridge
No water last week and a real river the next.
