Rising Water

So, this cool rainy Spring has certainly created some chaos in our town.

Here is Daniel on the front page of our local newspaper wading through what looks like a river in front of his house.

The night after the dough-nut fun (remember the big rainfall and thunderstorm we went outside to enjoy?) was a long and gruelling one for Daniel & Nicole and their entire neighbourhood.  They were up for hours in the night filling sandbags, trying to keep the water out of their yard...

to no avail...

As you can see their backyard flooded from the creek that overflowed.

And their front yard flooded from the storm drains that were gushing water, so there was no escaping the deluge. 

Here is a shot from above.   Their house is the tiny one where the roads intersect.

The creek runs behind his house. 

The day after the waters receded everything looked fine, except there were lots of basements and crawl spaces that needed pumping out. Unfortunately the flood threat is continuing for the next month due to a huge snow pack that is just beginning to melt.

So lots of beautiful people showed up to help Daniel and Nicole to set up barricades to prevent further damage and flooding.  It has been amazing to see the kindness of neighbours and complete strangers who stop by to fill sandbags, buy pizza and beer to feed the hard workers and help out wherever they can. 

The entire house looks like a fortress!  We pray the moat will not fill again with water, but if it does they are ready! 

The creek on the way to our place is swollen and raging, brown from all the dirt churned up by the swiftly flowing water.

The creeks in town are overflowing their banks and wreaking havoc.

The lake is also VERY full, but looking beautiful and peaceful, as usual.  

While the creek dwellers were walking through water in their yards, Patrice and I were downtown shopping at thrift stores and having some delicious coffee.

It has sure put our region on the news, but it sounds like half of our country is dealing with similar flooding issues.

Such a hard time for so many.  

I know Daniel and Nicole have been exhausted and I haven't been able to do much except bring some food by.

I'm grateful to be up on a hill out of the way of danger but feeling badly for those who are struggling.