The Great Flood of 2014

The night seemed normal enough

It was just after 10:00 at night. A powerful, loud thunderstorm had been raging for about 3 hours. After picking Jay up from work we laid in our quiet, dark room, discussing what we would eat for dinner. We didn't want to leave the house, but there were no delivery options so we settled on a trip to McDonalds.

I walked into the back room for my purse and saw a small puddle on the floor, about a foot in length and not deep at all. I told Jay, who grabbed towels and put them down, then banged on the ceiling and yelled something in Spanish to his dad upstairs. At the time I had no idea what they were talking about. He then turned to me and said "Start moving your stuff out of here. Put it on the bed."

Still not thinking anything big was happening, I slowly grabbed the loose shoes sprawled across the floor and some of the boxes that were close to the flood. He yelled at me. "Why are you moving so slow??" I responded that it didn't seem serious and the stuff on the floor would be okay.

"Go to the room and pick the wires up off the floor," he directed, so I did. I piled everything on the top of the TV stand, then on second thought moved the Xbox up to the top as well.

I still had no idea what was coming

I don't remember the next few minutes very well - at some point, his dad came down to the front and yelled for him, and that's when we saw it: a foot of water collecting at the front door. Buckets were grabbed and the two men tried to scoop out as much water as they could.

I finally started to move a little more quickly, and started picking more stuff up. Then I realized that some of my clothes, which were elevated a few inches off the floor, were already wet. Panic began to set in as I was now running about, stacking boxes and clothes precariously high. The bed became the savior where shoes and clothes baskets were stacked.

And then I caught a look at the bathroom - water was coming up through the tub, and it had already made its way to the bedroom. So worried had we been about the front that we didn't foresee it coming from the back as well. I grabbed Jay's attention and said "it's over...it's all over." He asked why, and I pointed to the rising water in the bedroom. It was then that the loss of hope became palpable.

That kind of fear results in action or paralysis...or both

We now had a bigger operation: move the very important stuff out of here, and hope for the best with the rest. So we evacuated the electronics and the cats, and moved them upstairs to the guest room on his parent's floor. While Jay and his dad worked on getting the old sump pump working in the front, where over two feet of water now rested, I sloshed through the house grabbing our essentials: wallets, his work keys, toothbrushes, cat food and a litter box.

Charlie was laying on the couch peacefully; he's been through disasters before with us. Larry stayed on the floor as long as possible, watching the water circle him. He jumped into one of his boxes and batted at the rising waters surrounding him, until he finally had to escape to the couch. My heart melted. Like a captain with the ship, he refused to go down until it was the end - but it was the end.

With the essentials moved, I could do nothing but sit and feel my heart sink as I helplessly watched the water rise higher and higher. Our bed was ruined. Items floated around in the water, things that we just couldn't get out of the way in time. I wanted so badly to cry, but couldn't - adrenaline was coursing through my veins and would allow no time for emotion.

We might as well have been stranded in the middle of the ocean

After what felt like an eternity, the pump started working and water gradually faded out of the apartment. Jay and I worked in the back, sweeping water as he scooped it into the bathroom. It took until about 2:30 am to clear most of it out - at which point we headed upstairs for showers and finally, some dinner.

The next day was more hectic. We emptied the whole apartment, dried all of the water, swept, cleaned the walls, and mopped, before bringing the stuff back in. Jay had to buy a new bed, which we put up on a frame and elevated several inches. At about 10:30 pm, we had cleaned everything and were able to take showers in our own bathroom, and sleep in our own bed.

I had a strong bourbon and coke that night.

We had the beacon of experience to guide us to safety

This is not the first time we have had to hurriedly move our stuff, nor that we were faced with the notion of losing everything - our quick apartment moves made sure of that. But this was the first time I ever felt quite so helpless about it. It was out of our control - there simply was nothing we could have done to avoid the floor, and at many points there was little we could do to the ever rising waters.

Many good things came from the flood, though. Just like the Biblical flood, it was a true day of purging and cleansing. Having to move all of our furniture and items out of the apartment afforded me a much overdue opportunity to scrub the house down, which I'd been too overwhelmed to do before. Jay's quick thinking and knowledge of the situation enabled us to save most of our stuff, particularly those things that were most important. I was grateful for having a cabinet stocked with cleaning supplies, which meant not needing to buy a ton of stuff other than the bed, garbage bags and a mop. And having a place to go for the night, along with the support shown to me by my friends (many of whom also had flooding) reminded me that we are not alone in this world nor without help.

The caveat: everything happens for a reason

You never have warning when stuff like this happens; nobody gets an alert when they open their eyes that tells them "tragedy will strike you today, be ready". Life is just like that. Before the events of the past month, I was always looking 10 years ahead, always worried that I was not where I should be in life, always concerned about having everything on lock. Being blindsided by LIFE has forced me to stop looking so far ahead, and instead to take every event of every day as it is in that moment. It isn't always easy, but letting go of that stress has been immensely helpful and quite honestly, a savior during a time when I've shed enough tears to flood the world.

What experiences have you had that made you reevaluate the way you thought about life?