The Flood of July 24, 2010

The flood of July 24, 2010

It had rained all day and night. By midnight, the rainwater had started to soak the ground and we had about 5 inches of water in our basement. Art, my husband and I had decided to stay up a little longer to get a head start on pumping the basement out. Around 12:30, I had called in my children Kristina, Darrell and there friend Savannah in from the front porch. Art and I decided to go out for or last smoke of the night, good that we did. One of our neighbors, Podrea had also came out and said, "The water was coming over the culvert pipe in the back yard". He just pulled his car out of the driveway and parked it across the street. In the time that it took him to pull out of his driveway, that water rolled down the driveway so calmly it was like a bathtub running over.

I sent Savannah and my daughter to wake her parents to be on the safe side we needed to have her go back with her family. I had to call for help twice that night, before getting any help sent to us. The firefighters finally arrived and a couple of them headed back to the culvert that caused the flooding water. One of the fireman had asked Art if he had pulled the main on the furnace, he responded you need to call National Grid ( the electric company) to pull it from out here we have to much water in the basement to gain access to the electrical box.

We noticed the water had started to recede back down the driveway, and thought good they must have cleared the blockage. Nope that only lasted a moment and the waters came rolling back down. The girls came back and were able to awake her parents which came right out and started moving there vehicles out of the way. Feeling like nothing we could do but stand a watch the waters come down the road and knowing this flood will change lives in less than a minute, but they also bring families closer together.

I had sent both of my kids back in the house with the dogs as I thought they would be safer in the house then outside. Shortly after sending them inside, I saw what looked to be like waterfalls coming out the side of the house from the basement windows. I had waved a firefighter over to show him and at the same time, I could hear my children screaming in horror in the house. The sound of the kids screaming made my heart fall into my stomach. Art and I ran to the door and tried to open it, the force pushing back was so strong it took both of us using all our weight to push it open. The door opened and the water gushed out of the house like a raging river.

The kids and dogs standing on the stairs yelling "help me I can't get down and I'm scared". Art grabbed Kristina, throwing her 5' 10" body over his shoulders as I had Darrell get on my back and trudged through the muddy water. We ran back in the house to get the dogs and the keys for the truck. The water was up to our knees and the force was so great