Yesterday, we volunteered...

We went last evening to help the Losh family. Their home was flooded in the North Cedar area of town. I forgot to take the camera, so I’ll have to paint a word picture of what we saw.

(The pictures included here are from the newspaper. The first two are of Cedar Falls, including the North Cedar area, from last week. The last two are in Cedar Rapids.)

First, we drove over the Main Street bridge which is flanked by brightly-colored sandbags that are to remain in place for the time being.

As we crossed the river, we were assailed by an unpleasant scent. At first I thought it was hog-farm-smell being blown into town by the breeze, (very unusual, but it could happen). Or was it “flood smell”?

The road still had huge puddles but someone had brought in extra gravel to build up the road (which was actually paved). Then we realized it wasn’t gravel, it was corn! and the smell was from wet, fermenting grain. We noticed the seven large grain silos of a Co-op(by the train tracks), with three or four of them leaning drunkenly. The flood water must have lifted the huge silos off their bases and scattered some of the corn. There were trucks there busily loading the corn that could be saved.

We wended our way to the Losh home, traveling a back way because a lake still covered a portion of the main road. There were fruit trees in their yard and it was easy to see how high the water had been—above the line, the leaves were vibrant, while below the leaves were dead. The water came up to the light on their front porch, and their wind chimes must have dangled in the flowing water.

We put on waterproof boots and rubber gloves and went in to see what we could do to help. The front porch was dry, except for the muddy footprints that came from inside the house. I was totally unprepared for what I saw. The water line in the living room was higher than my head.

A foot higher.

The family had prepared for the flood--after all, they are in a flood plain--by using large metal shelves that went up to the ceiling—stacked with their collections of books, craft items, old records, stamp collections, and electronics—DVD player, etc. We began filling garbage bags with all the sodden, muddy book things. The flat panel TV hung on the wall had a flood line across the front of it. They did save the things on the very top shelf—the things that didn’t fall off into the water when other things floated and bumped into the shelves.

Up to the water line, everything was the same color—dingy brown. With every step, the carpet oozed. We tried to be careful to not get the mud on any bare skin. Who knows what is in it (sewage and farm chemicals just to name two possible things)? And it had that decaying, mud-flat smell. Everyone is admonished to get a tetanus booster if they work in the flooded areas.

When picking up things off the floor, they were so slippery with the silty mud on them that they were hard to grasp with our vinyl gloves. We stayed until we had the living room emptied. The kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms still need to be mucked out. The basement is still full of water. They have to pump it out slowly, so the walls don’t collapse. I’m afraid I’d be tempted to just walk away from the entire thing and begin over again. As it is, they will have to tear off and replace all the sheet rock in their home, and replace a lot of other things as well.

It was so sad to listen to Rita and Allen say, “Ohhh nooo!” as we loaded up a favorite book or item. Old scrapbooks. Important papers. On and on. They are nearing retirement and had been stockpiling things for their free time. Now those are almost all gone.

Kevin said on the way home, “Well. That was instructive! Maybe it’s time to get rid of some of our stuff. You either die and someone else has to dispose of it, or it’s lost in a flood, tornado, or fire. Either way, if you have too much stuff, it’s too much.” He would be a minimalist if I’d go along with it.

And we decided we’d rather clean up after a tornado than after a flood. With a tornado there is debris. With a flood there is muddy, icky debris.

Another thing I’ve found out—homeowner’s insurance does NOT cover flooding. You have to purchase a rider to cover sewer back-up, but if the water comes from outside you are not covered. The only way to get coverage is from a government agency, and then only if you are in a flood plain and your locality participates in the program. So most people do not have any insurance to help them with costs of the clean up.

And so far, everyone has been saying good things about FEMA and the Red Cross.

When we got home, we had to wash the car to get the decaying corn (and smell!) off it, and I couldn't wait to take a shower. We were lucky in that the day was pleasant--about 72 degrees. How much worse this would have been if it were raining, or hot & humid!

We're thankful for the little things, now.

The clouds haven't been all bad...

Not everything related to the weather has been bad.

We've had some amazing clouds this spring--and this view is unusual simply because the sky is so blue! Usually it is hazy with humidity. We are experiencing a bumper crop of strawberries! We picked these this morning, and it is about 8 times what we've ever had before in a single picking. Now we can make jam! Before it was just a handful that was eaten before it ever made it to the kitchen.
This is the iris that I thought Catherine gave me. She says that she doesn't have one like this. Where ever it came from, it is one of my favorites! And if you notice, there is even a stripe of yellow on the petal that should be all gold.
And the sweet william seed that Grandma Mildred Bailey gave me last summer is now blooming--reds, purples, pinks.
I love walking through the yard several times a day just to see all the beautiful things. And I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for all these things, for they truly do please the eye and gladden the heart.

Every cloud has a silver lining...

This is the view, too often, from our front window. 5 inches of rain last Sunday, 3 inches of rain Thursday morning, an inch of rain this morning. And yesterday, we even saw a section of cloud drop down--and it was rotating! A few minutes later, the tornado warning sirens went off. It never developed fully, but that is how it begins. As of Friday afternoon, the flood waters were receding. The water wasn't too kind to the asphalt.
Maybe the Dixieland Jazz Festival will be able to go on in less than 2 weeks.
I haven't heard what damage was done inside the museum, but it is in the drying out phase.

Most of Cedar Falls is in the drying out phase. Some ward members were affected. Some were affected in Waverly. But the worst is in Cedar Rapids. I can hardly fathom what they are experiencing there.

While Catherine was here...

Catherine was able to come for a visit this week.

We hadn't seen them since March and now that school was out, it was a good time to bring the kids to play in Grandma and Grandpa's yard. They hadn't done that sine last Labor Day.

At least we THOUGHT it was going to be a good time to come!

We planned on driving up to Waverly to play on the really cool playground there--it looks like a wooden fortress. And, we could see where the tornado crossed the highway.

But the road was flooded, and closed.

So, we thought we'd go to the brand-new children's interactive museum in Waterloo. Oh. It's closed due to flooding.

Well, then, let's go to the library for story hour. Oh. It's closed due to possible flooding.

And the internet was down for a day because the server was flooded. I hadn't realized HOW much we use the internet everyday!

So we ended up walking around to see the high water. All of downtown Cedar Falls was blockaded with National Guard troops.

But, Four Queens ice cream shop is up the hill, closer to our house. So it was strawberry twists, or black raspberry or orange twists for everyone. Then we went to a school playground to play for awhile, until the heat (or the sticky fingers) drove us home.

The TV room downstairs is a nice place to watch a movie on a hot afternoon.

Oh, the rains came down and the floods came up...

While Catherine was here, we took a walk to the river...
... and found it in interesting places, like the boat house (which is used to being flooded, but not to this extent. This time it looks like structural damage has been done.) Water is flowing over the highway from Island Park to the frisbee golf course (which is now a scuba diving event).
In two weeks, this is supposed to be where the Dixieland Jazz festival takes place, well, not in the out house, but in the surrounding area. This is where all the vendors set up--with grilled turkey legs , gyros, and funnel cakes.
A fully-loaded train is parked on the bridge to provide stability. And so far it has worked.
They sandbagged around the ice house museum up to the normal point. Not high enough.

A year ago today...

...Kevin and I had a 6-hour layover in Japan on our way to Guam. It was 2 a.m. according to our body clocks, along with all the unfamiliar sights and sounds and smells. It was fun! I cannot believe it has been an entire year! It seems more like a few months. And now we're looking forward to seeing everyone at the end of June!

Lest you think all we have is devastation...

Memorial Day--I love hanging the flag! Our ward had a breakfast at Black Hawk Park, with a "retirement of the flag" ceremony (old, ragged flags are burned by the Boy Scouts). The flag always brings a lump in my throat. We took care of Yuki over the long weekend, and Lily loved having a play companion.
My window boxes are coming along!
As are the pansies on the front porch,
and the "volunteer" columbines. Some are pure white now.
I'm doing most of my flower colors in the primary palette--red, yellow and blue. Every once in awhile, there are some pinks, just to keep things from getting monotonous.

More pictures...

Picking through the debris... Brick walls just aren't what they used to be...
In the lower center is a kitchen cabinet with glass doors, filled with pyrex baking dishes--and nothing is broken!

Unbelievable!

We got a call yesterday from a ward member who needed help packing up and moving. The Tory's live in Parkersburg, but their home was not damaged. They were VERY lucky, since they didn't have a basement to seek shelter in. Damage began just one block away from them. They were already planning on moving as soon as school was out, since Brother Tory was already working in Des Moines and has a home there. Well. School is out--about 2 weeks early. With no power and no water, they decided to just go now.

We drove out, taking the girls and the sister missionaries with us. Although we had seen video on TV, and pictures in the newspaper, we were still not prepared for what we saw.

The above picture is the major highway that goes through town--the debris was plowed off so traffic could resume.

The trees were snapped, and their bark polished off.
And this semi did not make it. We saw, in front of one bare foundation, a pair of chairs, a pair of geraniums in pots, and a pair of crosses. We hardly needed the reminder that this was so deadly!
Some homes stayed standing, some didn't. As we drove by, there was one home with an upstairs' bedroom closet still standing--with a coat still hanging in it!

A few weeks ago, when I drove through Parkersburg, the leaves were just coming out on the trees and the spring flowers blooming in the yards that lined the highway. Now they look like a landfill. Or a war-zone.

We saw some homes on the edge of the pathway that had minor damage. The side of the house exposed to the winds looked like a pin cushion, with all kinds of things sticking straight out of the vinyl siding.

And it wasn't until a map was published in the paper, showing the pathway that I realized that the tornado passed by just about 2 miles to the north of our home. Afterall, Parkersburg is about 15 miles west of us; New Hartford is 10 miles west of us. That made it seem like it was a LONG way away. But the sky to the north of us sure looked ugly.

Our sky had bits of sunshine poking through!

It has been designated an F-5, with winds greater than 200 mph. It stayed on the ground for 43 miles. It passed just north of the Waterloo airport. They recorded winds of 93 mph.

The Aftermath

We've been getting calls from family members around the country--the national news makes it look like half of Iowa was blown away. (I'll have to remember that perspective when watching news stories about other areas.) Three towns were hit, and they were small towns. So small that they have to share a high school. Still, 220 houses were flattened, and 400 were damaged. Kevin went out yesterday with a small group of ward members to help at the Godfrey's home. He took these pictures.

The Godfrey's two vehicles, where WERE inside an attached garage. Notice the guitar underneath the car's tire. Those vehicles were airborne. The interiors of the cars were packed in with old cornstalks, and other debris. (Last night, Bro. Godfrey joked that he couldn't tell the difference from how they normally looked.)
At least the hardwood floor survived! If it can be salvaged...
The family escaped with just the clothes on their backs and no shoes. So the men's first job was to find clothing and important papers. Like their wallets. And they found them! And their wedding rings. And shoes filled with the insulation, just packed firmly into the toes. Fortunately, the insulation was the cellulose type, not the fiberglass type. The men loaded up eight large bags of clothing and most has now been washed up and returned to the Godfrey's at their hotel room.

All this took the tornado 30 seconds to accomplish. The family said that once they were in their safe room, their eardrums and sinuses began to hurt immensely! Then everything rumbled and dust and insulation started to come down on them. They huddled in a corner with a blanket over them. It took a few minutes to realize it was over, as things were still settling and shifting. As they opened the door, they just couldn't believe what they were seeing.

There have been many miracles--like a clear, sunny day to salvage things when it was forecast to be a rainy day. Like finding a kitchen cabinet with glass doors, on the back lawn, and none of the glass was broken (nor were the glass dishes inside). Like someone coming by with a page from a scrapbook--found in their yard--and looking for its owner. Like finding most of the personal journals, in decent shape. Like surviving in the first place.

Seven people did not.

We had a barbecue last with the family and others who had been out working. It is amazing how they could joke and smile about all this.

Like the "For Sale" sign in the front yard still in perfect condition.

Like counting it as "missionary work" because all their FHE packets about the gospel were gone and likely scattered all over northeast Iowa.

Like having worked all day Saturday cleaning their home for a showing--it looked better than it had looked since they had moved in--all for a tornado to wipe it out.

Like homes just across the street losing a few shingles or some siding, while their side of the street was just a string of debris.

I was grateful to see such a positive response. But I think they are planning on moving back to Utah.

Visuals from the open house

With a variety of ward members and high school friends, the house and yard were utilized very well! The badminton is behind the apple tree.
The Young Men--always looking for a way to turn an activity into something involving a ball or a frisbee.

I'm still amazed at how well it turned out on short notice!

Well, it went well...

About a week ago, someone at church mentioned that one of our graduating seniors was not holding an open house, which is SO traditional here. We talked about it and I volunteered to host a surprise one for her at our house--it gave me a good reason to spruce things up.

We changed a regular Wednesday night Mutual activity into her open house. We sent out an email to parents. We invited others to help with treats.

And tons of people came!

We had a perfect May evening--sunshine, light breeze, almost 70 degrees.

Not too warm for those in the house and not too cold for those outside.

When the house was filled with people, they spilled out onto the deck, then into the backyard. The youth became involved in frisbee, soccer, and badminton. (And we finally had to tell them to go home--they were having too much fun to realized they were the only ones still here.)

People came and stayed. Several mentioned how fun it was to have a party and it seemed like half the ward was here. They sat and chatted as groups formed, and then

reformed with new additions. There was a lot of laughter.

And our yard was complimented many times. Of course, it is at its most beautiful right now with the apple trees in full blossom, as well as the lilacs. The strawberry patch is covered in blossoms and the veggie garden still looks neat and comely with baby peas, beets and spinach in their neat rows. The grass is full and vibrant green with no dandelions showing--

thank heavens for fertilizer!

And it was pretty stress-free for me as well. I only had to clean up the house--and this is a good time to look at things with a critical eye and make some changes and clean up woodwork and kitchen cabinets--and move the piles of papers that always accummulate near the computer; repaint the front door to cover up the stains from last year's bird nest, and get the yard looking good, which meant a lot of weeding of tree-beds and flower beds.

But I get to keep all those improvements!

Oh, and I kept the punch bowl full of lemonade.

Three and a half gallons were disposed of!

I almost had a difficult time going to sleep last night, I was so buoyed up!

It's a great feeling when an event turns out so well.

I was happy to be a part of it.

Spring Happenings at our home

When we returned from a youth activity, A&E had a surprise for us! They had found a "free" air-hockey table and carried it home. At first we weren't sure it would fit anywhere, but if the pingpong table is folded up, there is a spot for it. I have a feeling that after a few months, it will lose its allure. But it is fun! And I have to show the magnolia tree at its height in bloom. And it continues to rain--a lot.
Alice had her birthday, with a "citrus" cake (lemon cake with some orange food coloring in one layer). In stead of going to a restaurant for her birthday dinner, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire in the new fire pit. (Alice's choice!) We have plenty of wood in the little grove behind our house. And since our town now has a burn ban except for "recreational" fires, the old wood has been piling up.
Each morning, now matter how I am feeling, when I look out on this scene, my heart is uplifted and gladdened. The long, cool spring has kept the flowers blooming. We had a touch of frost yesterday morning, but nothing was hurt.
Happy Spring!

On Saturday, Elizabeth got to have her first paying gig, playing in a quartet for a University reception. They got lots of compliments, and $100 to split. For playing an hour. AND they got to eat lunch. Of course, they had to have practices together, and they have each been playing their instrument for at least 7 years. I guess if I were to count up all the $$ for lessons, this doesn't even pay for a single lesson. But a monetary return isn't why we do music in our family. We do it for the "fun" school concerts? (Probably not).
Or for the actually fun concerts in the extra-curricular junior orchestra? No, that's more of a reward than a motivation.
We do music in our family because--

1) it involves diligence and
responsibility;

2) it opens up another part of the
brain--musically-trained people tend to be smarter;

3) it brings association with other good
kids and good families;

4) it opens up opportunities for service
and to be involved in the community.

And that's a good way to raise kids!