The Flood Fight of 2011

That's what they are calling it. The Flood Fight of 2011. It is a fight indeed.

Some background info for those not keeping up with the Heits on Facebook. Last you may have heard, we were trying to sell our condo because we found a beautiful house to buy. Well long story short, we did in fact get a nice family to buy our condo from us. It took one month and one day from the time we put it on the market to the time we got the offer. We got our asking price with us paying the closing costs, which was our best case scenario and the best we were hoping for.

Our buyers wanted to move the closing date back to May 31st, but other than the appraisals and inspections, that was the only bit of business that needed doing. No problem. Our owners were fine with changing the closing date. So we would be closing on both the condo and the house on the same day. That is great except we needed to get our stuff out of the condo before closing. But we couldn't get our stuff into the house until closing. What to do with our stuff in the meantime?

Well in the end the owners agreed to let us put our stuff in the garage and main floor of the house starting the weekend right before closing, as long as all the business with our condo sale was peachy. It was. So that's what we did. We got our stuff packed up and moving day was on May 28th.

Our friend James helped us a ton by letting us use this truck of his from work. We also had help from several friends and all the family members (that weren't working). I had to work for a few hours and Randy had to work. Grandpa Heit came later on to help out.

This is nearly as full as the garage had to be. I was happy to be able to bring in the furniture and other bigger items and get them out of the moisture of the garage. Yes it is raining. I don't recommend moving in the rain, but you do what you gotta do when you gotta do it. Rain=not good for the near future, by the way.

The rest of the Kelly clan getting things in order between loads.

Moving went very well. We had a tremendous crew to help us out. We were all done by mid afternoon. We sent grandpa home to nap with Brie. I picked up Chelsea, and us womenfolk stayed around to start setting up beds and unwrapping the furniture. We had wrapped all the bedroom furniture in plastic to help keep from getting scratched and/or wet. Plus it kept all the drawers in. It worked fairly well. We went through a good couple thousand feet of saran wrap, but it was worth it, hehe. We got a lot done in that day.

Moving day was Saturday the 28th. Sunday we took off. Monday the 30th was condo cleaning day. Us womenfolk went to work and took 5-6 hours and cleaned the condo out for preparation of closing the next day. It looked pretty spiffy. Luckily we didn't have to preclean the house because they had it professionally cleaned after the renters left.

Tuesday the 31st comes around. This is yesterday for those keeping track. We went in and closed on the condo and the house back to back. Everything was very smooth except they reimbursed us for the condo fee for June, but we hadn't payed it yet. So we just had to go make the payment that they already reimbursed us for and we were in business. Rick dropped me off at the house and went off to get milk, get a second garage door opener since there was only one, and to make copies of the key, since there was only one. Weird, I know. Who only has ONE key to their house?

I turn on the heat, huddle in a blanket for a bit, and call Auntie Beth to come over to brighten my day. I had asked Rick how he felt and he wasn't feeling too good. I was still excited and happy and was finding it hard to get going on the boxes. But I did start unloading my kitchen stuff. Auntie Beth came and started helping. And Grandma Heit also dropped by to help. Right before grandma Heit came over, we got the news.

There was going to be a mandatory evacuation for all of the flood zone areas. We are in flood zone number one. Flood zone number one doesn't necessarily mean we are the highest risk. They are numbered geographically 1-9. Either way, we were going to have to be out of the house/area by Thursday evening. (remember this is Tuesday) They didn't think the Mouse River was going to be able to hold the water that is on the way. Fabulous.

We knew going into this deal that the river was high. We are within two blocks of the river on 16th street, right in the middle between the underpass of Burdick and 16th, and the Arrowhead underpass. This is not the lowest point by the river. The lowest points are over by Sammy's and 3rd. So they are definitely in much more trouble than we are. They are zone five or six, if you care. We still had several feet of leeway before the river became a danger to us. And they had said that the river had already crested back in April-that it was as high as it was going to get for the season.

Well.

They were wrong. During the week before closing we had 5 or 6 inches of rain all throughout the basin. That was NOT helpful. They have been releasing water from other areas because I guess in Canada they are having some flooding issues, and the dams were at full or near to full capacity with the anticipation of more rain and water flowing in. Rain and thunderstorms are STILL in the forecast for Thursday and Friday.

So remember we were going to have to be out by the end of Thursday. The water was rising faster than anticipated and they upped the out time by 24 hours (out by Wednesday night) and announced that they would be hastily constructing some secondary dikes all along the river valley. That sounds peachy, doesn't it? It IS peachy unless, like us, you live on the WRONG side of that secondary dike. That secondary dike is now fully constructed in front of our house, which would hold the overflow from the river right on our house, as well as others, obviously. Needless to say, I am not a fan of this secondary dike, despite the good it will do for everybody else. Call me selfish.

Up until the announcement of the secondary dikes, I have been fine mentally. Rick has been a bit of a basketcase. Controlled basketcase, but basketcase nonetheless. He's always been far more concerned about this than I have been. He wasn't excited about closing. I was. He was not feeling good about it. I was. Up until those secondary dikes, I was totally fine. After that, I admit, I shed a few tears. I was upset. I was suddenly in knots. I've gone in a few waves here and there about feeling good about things and feeling like I'm the center of target practice.

So that brings us to now. The river level stayed steady at 1553 point something as far as the height of the river over night last night. I know that doesn't mean anything to you. It doesn't mean anything to me either. But for perspective, the dikes are built to hold 1555 with a one foot clearance. So technically it could hold up to 1556, and the water would be brimming the tops of the dike. The water that is expected to be here (originally Thursday evening, now by earlier Thursday morning) is projected at 1557-1558. That's 1-2 feet above the dikes. Not good. Hence the evacuation and building of more dikes. (Of course the city and the national weather service have different projections, and it's all guess work anyway, but the outlook is not good on either front.)

Now they haven't ignored the main dike system. They have been building up and reinforcing like crazy. The national guard is here and everyone has been monitoring things 24-7 for quite some time. I'm really quite proud of our system and our people and how well we've been handling all this water. There has been sandbagging galore. I guess there is more water now than there was in the major flood of 1969. The difference is the dikes that they built after that. The dikes have been good enough for 42 years. Now, the DAY that we buy a nice new house, the dikes are no longer going to be enough. Crazy.

All along I've been wondering, am I foolish or faithful? Foolish or faithful? I have to be one of the two because I've never had any reservations about this house. I know Rick has, but we've still gone forward with things, in faith. But even now, I don't regret it. I don't wish we had not bought this house. I hate the fact that we are in this situation. I hate not knowing what is going to happen. I hate being diked in with the water on our side and no sandbags around our house. I hate that it's going to cost us lots of money whether we want to spend it or not if the water gets in the house. I hate the it seems inevitable that the water WILL get in the house and the question is just how MUCH. But all along I've been at peace. With the exception of the announcement of the secondary dikes. Then I had a nice emotional roller coaster dipping way down. But now, again, I feel at peace. I don't know. I am still wondering if I'm foolish or faithful. I have a headache and I'm definitely concerned, but I don't feel like we are doomed.

I have such mixed feelings as far as the house goes and as far as our things go. We have had to move our things several times now. We moved into the house and garage. We got the evacuation order and moved it all into the house. I felt good about what we had done. Then we decided to take some of the most important things out of the house such as paperwork and scrapbooks and journals and electronics and such. I felt like a pioneer sifting through our things trying to decide what was important enough to take and leave the rest. In some ways it's ALL important. In other ways, NONE of it is. So we went through and got our top priorities. I felt good about what we had taken and felt confident that the rest would be fine. Then came the announcement of the secondary dikes. I no longer felt so good, after hearing that the flood waters would be held in on top of us and not able to spread across square footage and lessen the blow for us. So we went through again and put things up as high as possible. Later we went back again and did more of the same. Then this morning Rick went back one last time to try to either move out the big furniture or prop it up on buckets or something. He worked up until the dike work was 50 feet from our house and were literally forced to get out or be trapped in.

Now we've done all we can do for ourselves and literally cannot do any more. All we can do now is wait and help other people where we can. As I type Grandpa and Rick are out sandbagging yet again. I am here trying to maintain my level of calm (if you listen too much to what is going on, you get REAL stressed REAL fast). In the end, stuff is stuff. The house is a structure. It will cost money to repair and/or rebuild/replace, but we are safe. That is what is important.

I am grateful for a safe and comfortable place to go. I have my mother's house to take refuge in. I don't have to go to the school or other shelter and depend on them for food and shelter. I have comforable accomodations and plenty to eat/drink/do. Our family is here together, safe and sound. We are blessed, despite what is happening around us and directly to our home and things. Things are things. Things can be replaced or done without. Family cannot. We are fortunate. Some people are dealing with tornadoes. Some have earthquakes and tsunamis. Right now we are dealing with flood water. And overall the situation is well controlled and monitored. We are just some of the unlucky few getting diked in. We are trying to be optimistic. There IS still a chance that the river will hold. There is a chance that if it doesn't hold, not much will go over. Or it will go over in areas other than our own. Fortune for one is misfortune for another. Just like secondary dikes.

Well I think I've said enough for now. I will try to keep the blog updated. I'm much better at keeping Facebook updated. We ask for faith and prayers from anyone and everyone. We need the dikes to hold, and we need no more rain. Thank you to those who have been praying for us. We are well and things are going as well as they can for the moment. We pray circumstances will not only not get worse, but that they will improve. Until later then.