"A Flood of Biblical Proportions"

Many of you have asked if we were affected by the flooding in Colorado. Fortunately, our house was not affected by the flooding, but we are very close to the damage. The picture below is a road less than two miles from our house.

 

 Our church has been working closely with FEMA to help with clean up both in neighborhoods on a smaller scale, and with community support (ie guarding dumpsters around town...but that's another story). Below is one neighborhood in Longmont, just 20 minutes north of us. This neighborhood was one shown on the news with water covering the entire neighborhood. The National Guard set up camp at the entrance.

 

 This was the sight in front of EVERY house in the neighborhood.

Most basements still had several inches of water because the ground was too saturated. If the water was pumped out, it came back in from underneath.

These stairs lead to 5" of water four days after the flooding started.

  My friend Breanne and I were able to help because her mom, who just lives up the street (literally), watched the kids for us. It was a busy day moving items, scraping, hauling, tearing out carpet, and ripping out baseboards.

This was one of the more lightly affected houses. You can see how high the water got on the toilet, but the houses with basements had water up to the ceiling.

 Breanne scraping mud from the closet floor.

 We are doing what we can to help, but it will be a long process for these houses to dry out. I realized how blessed I was to not have any house damage from the flood, and realized how easily disaster can strike, These towns had contaminated water and no electricity for days. It sure makes me want to be prepared.