For those who are not currently living in this state, the one that currently resembles the state of Minnesota (as the land of 1,000 lakes), I'm not exactly sure how to describe it.
Around midnight last night, I was lying in bed (because I still seem to spend more of my night awake than asleep), when all of a sudden I heard a loud crack and the reflection from the lightening strike peer through the crack in our bedroom blinds. Seconds later, I heard a downpour begin that I believe last until the wee hours of the morning. While I drifted in an out of sleep, the sound of the rain pouring down outside was continuously heard and a part of my alertness and my dreariness.
Waking up for good a few minutes before 5, I looked out the bedroom window and could hardly believe my eyes. Our swimming pool was full up to the brim top of the deck and with the rain coming down so hard, I couldn't tell if it had already breached the top of the deck. I stumbled to the kitchen and flipped the back porch light on. I opened the back door and stepped outside, still in a state of sleepiness. The moment my foot hit the cool rain water, I was awake!
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| Why yes that is my foot stepping right outside my back door. |
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| And while hard to see, that light reflecting is on the 4 inches of water that completely covered my backyard as our pool overflowed. In the far background is our pool, running level with the 4 inches of standing water in our "lake front property." |
I turned on the TV in our bed, and just like I was an elementary school kid, I prayed for a snow day. Or I guess I should say a "rain day." I thought for sure, if we were THIS flooded, they'd have to cancel school and work. Turning on the TV and catching the images/stories of the mess that was everywhere in the valley, I wasn't sure what to do, as it was way worse than I ever thought it would be.
The road Jarrett takes to work looked like this...
Um yes, that is 6 lanes of the I-10 Freeway that are completely underwater. Why yes, that is one of the main through-ways millions of people pass by daily in our city. And yes, that is a road that is at flooded with at least 4 feet of water. And that was just one of the roads. The majority of the others were the same way.
The TV announcers warned everyone about every 2 minutes that the only people that should be out on the roads are emergency personnel. The governor sent a message and begged people to stay home. We received emergency announcements on our phone asking people to stay at home and that traveling is extremely treacherous. I thought, for sure, schools going to be canceled, and for sure work will send a note saying to wait to come in until it is safe.
As the minutes ticked by and school after school canceled their classes for the day, our school instead called us to say, "Classes will begin at normal time. Students should report to school promptly by 7:35 a.m. Buses may be delayed due to road closures. Again, school will begin as usually scheduled.
I thought, wait a minute. Did they not listen to the news, do the administrators not have a cell phone to get the same emergency alerts we did? Do they live some place else in this state? How can they not see how flippin bad out it is.
Well, I guess so much for that snow day. And then my phone rang again. It was our wonderful Aunt Stacey, the best pre-school teacher in the world, who teaches at Isabelle's school. She said, "Angie, I'm calling you as my friend. Just so you know our school was completely flooded last night and it is a mess. Please don't bring Isabelle today, we are closed." Finally I thought, some one, some official, is thinking straight.
Telling the boys they needed to get their butt in gear, to leave, I knew it would take us a lot longer to get to school than the normal 2 minutes it does in the morning. Backing out of the drive way, the only way to make it down our street was to drive in the very middle of the road where the pavement is peaked. Thank goodness we drive an SUV.
As I turned or tried to pull out of our housing development and onto the main road by our house, I had to turn into the far center lane and the rest of the road was completely flooded and pouring over the side walk. Looking to our right, we looked over to see a sunken green belt that is at least 8 feet lower than the sidewalk on the curb, by our housing development. It completely flooded and pouring right back into the street. It had no where to go.
We slowly followed car after car as we made waves higher than our windows plowing through the water to get them to school. I couldn't help but wonder if I was going to become one of those motorists whose cars were stalled in one of the 100's of roads across the valley. We are well aware of the stupid motorist law they have here, I wonder if that law applies in the great 100 year flood? I worried, I was about to find out.
Turning the corner to head to the school, we noticed the lake was completely out of its banks and pouring into the street like a beautiful waterfall those wealthy housing divisions have welcoming home their residents. I didn't like the welcome all that much.
After many a scary moments, when it felt like the tires on our car were floating under the water below us, we arrived at the school. It looked something like the moats kings would build around their precious castles. There was no resemblance of the playground and the water went almost to the front door. The parking lot was completely flooded. Thank goodness for the weaving cones to direct us to the least flooded route. I couldn't help but think to myself, where again were the officials who made the call it was safe to send our children to school in this weather. I'm not sure I want them making safety calls any more.
I dropped off my boys, who had to walk through a stream of water to the building and then they disappeared behind the gym door. It was then my turn to begin the journey to work.
After plowing through waves of water at almost every street I found, I finally made it to the parking lot at my work. It turns out half of the spaces were inaccessible, because they were completely under a foot of water. I parked, gathered up my belongings and set forth determined to reach my office building.
The campus, for 8 a.m. on a Monday morning, was eerily quiet. I wondered if everyone else got the alert and I had some how missed it. As I turned the corner to my building I saw this...
Now, I don't claim to be a genius, but I'm pretty sure caution tape means to stay away. Yes, that is the entrance to my office building, yes that is how I'm suppose to access the building. Since I clarified that I'm not a genius, I guess than I better tell you what I did next. I pulled up my pants as far as I could and I started tromping through the flooding to get to the front door. Stupid, yeah, okay maybe a bit. How else was I suppose to get in?
All the while, I kept thinking about what every emergency professional, news announcer and government official begged us to do. STAY HOME. Here I was doing exactly the opposite.
Soaking wet to the middle of my calf and dripping water from the top of my head to my knee, I arrived at work safely. As I turned on my computer and put on the newscast in the background, I heard the weather man say that in the last 12 hours we received more rain that we had received in total all year. With more than 5 inches of water falling in less than 8 hours, we were living through the 100 year flood.
I'm thankful to say we all were safe, unhurt and have memories that will last forever. I can see it now. Some day, when my boys are in their 80's and their grandchildren ask them about the great 100 year Phoenix flood of 2014, I can picture what they are going to say, " It was EPIC. There was water everywhere, we had to walk knee deep in water, our swimming pool was over flowing and WE STILL HAD TO GO TO SCHOOL!"
Until next time,
Angie
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