When It Rains, It Pours (And Floods)

So, here’s the thing.

Life is crazy.

Two days ago I made myself the promise that I would go to the gym every day from now until July 4th. That failed on the very first day when I couldn’t get to the gym because of rain.

Mother Nature is a bitch.

The storms here over the last two days led to flooding in my city (I live in a small place north of Memphis). The levee that kept the river at bay here broke in two and flood water spread across a good portion of our city, in addition to the rain that added up. We got over 10″ in a few hours the first go around then it added several more inches over the next day.

We were lucky to be just out of the reach of the water. It started in our direction, flooded the park we walk at and part of our neighborhood.  But it didn’t directly affect us thankfully. But it has ruined a lot of people’s lives. Friends of the family and people we know had to take only the necessities when they were evacuated from houses with the water rising. Cars, houses, possessions all totaled. In other parts of the area the flooding and storms have taken lives. It just makes me so sad. We were lucky that the funnel cloud spotted near us last night didn’t touch down, but even without tornadoes in the mix this is horrible.

So now all the hotels are full and shelters are open in a community center and a church. The Red Cross is taking care of people that have been displaced.

Some pictures I took before the roads were closed off yesterday. These are the tame pictures, actually. Google some news stories/pictures about the flooding in Tennessee and you’ll see what I mean.

Aerial view of part of the city, including my mom’s place of work:

The flooding isn’t just in my town. It’s widespread across my state. Places are flooded from Memphis to Nashville and many people have needed to be rescued from their houses, a few have gotten swept away, and at least one has drowned. Flash flooding can continue through today and more rain might be expected, so it could get worse but we are all praying for the opposite.

We are under a dusk to dawn curfew now, which doesn’t mean much since we have flooding all around us and I can’t go anywhere (I ride a scooter so…..no).  My gym is on the other side of town, through the water, so that isn’t happening either. I’m not thinking so much about the normal day to day stuff. I’m sure I will go back to working out and obsessing about being healthy soon enough, tomorrow, maybe, but for today I’m going to see how I can help friends and neighbors who lost everything they worked so hard to get.

If you want to help people affected by the storms and widespread flooding, please please go donate to the Red Cross. They always show up, they always help, they are a great organization.

Update: most of the water in my city has gone back to the drains, ditches, and rivers. The roads are clear and now people are just working on getting their stuff dried out/taken care of.  Luckily no one here got hurt and stuff can all be replaced. Those are good things.

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Tagged as: flooding, home, life, Millington, weather