The Rains Came Down....
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 7:15 AM 
...and the floods came up.
Many great stories in the making...but not today. A wonderful trip to celebrate my sis' birthday. Snow. Rain. Kids. Rain. Advent. Rain. Shop vac. Rain. Moving. Oh, did i mention rain?
I went to sleep Sunday night with this breath prayer: "Breathe God in. Chaos goes out." It was lovely and fortunate since I knew things did not bade well when my husband woke me up yesterday and said, "I could really use your help. There is water pouring into the basement."
If you haven't heard, Seattle just experienced the second largest rainfall in any 24 hour period (3.5+ inches). We are fine. Fortunate, in fact, compared to many throughout the city. Our basement (which is probably the largest livable square footage of our house) is wet and its furnishings are now residing in my living room and dining room. Bill and I spent more than 12 hours vacuuming and pumping water out of the house at the rate of about 120 gallons an hour. We are fortunate. The water came out of our house. We will not know for awhile how severe the damage, but the rain stopped before bedtime.
Needless to say, I have a full day (week, month) ahead of me. I'm still not sure about the breath prayer because my house certainly looks chaotic right now. The cool thing is that everyone I encountered yesterday commented on how calm I was and what a good attitude I had. Hmmmm. Yes, I am fortunate & grateful. More later...
Photos from Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The washout is about 1 1/2 miles from my house.
Reader Comments (13)
Thoughts and prayers are with you and all in Seattle. The photographs are shocking. So many treasures lost.
Gee, Lucy - no, I hadn't heard about the floods in Seattle. How wonderful, though that you are calm throughout it - it's all we can ask for in those situations, really, isn't it?
Praying for you and yours.
Ohmygosh! I hadn't heard (one of the problems with avoiding TV and newspapers I guess) and I'm relieved you're okay. I hope the damage proves to be minimal. I have friends in the Seattle area ... guess I'll call to check in.
Looking at the pictures reminds me of the fires last month in So Cal ... and the mudslides in our recent rainy day last week. Heart-breaking for all those affected.
Hugs and blessings,
tess, sue & storyteller--thank you for your warm thoughts and blessings. we are supposed to be in for a dry spell for the next several days which is a really good thing!
Bummer! Fortunately it's mostly "stuff" that got messed up. But it was your stuff. :-(
D
Lucy-
So glad to read of your gratitude level in spite of what is happening in your part of the country. I never had any ties with that part of the country until I became a blogging wonder. I hope the chaos in the area and the flooding will subside soon. Prayers. We had some significant wind the other day. I was out walking Sunny and a tree fell right behind us. Freaky. We opted to cut our daily walk short.
Lucy, so sorry to hear about the flood!! I can't help thinking about the house built upon the rock. They say that it's not really what happens to you in life that matters but what you do with what happens to you and it's wonderful to hear that the house (home) stood upon the rock....house stood (hopefully drier), relationship with husband survived and Lucy stayed centred and at home. That's pretty wonderful. Love, Pamela
lucy, what a pain! I was grateful Monday that we live on the 3rd floor in a building on a hill. So glad you're okay and surviving through it. How are you doing today? Love, Christine
thanks geezer, dream, pamela & christine..yep...it is just stuff and it is my stuff. today i have not been so calm. i think the pressures and reality crept in, so i yelled at the orthodontist, cried for "no reason" and then decided i pretty much needed to stay away from people for a few days :-) not sure how that's going to work. oh well...i feel better now :-)
also--my e-mail notices for blogger are not working...arrrgggghhhhh!
so sorry.....it was such a wonderful weekend - hope you can remember it:)
no doubt i will remember it fondly!!!
Hi lucy, reading this post on your experience of being flooded, bought back with a rush the chaos of when we had to evacuate because of floods in July.
i hope you have some helpful friends around and are able to debrief a bit along the way - we are only just now realising how much it impacted us (light post traumatic stress syndrome reared it's head recently)
and i was gobsmacked to discover your breath prayer was the same as mine
welcome, kel! thanks for stopping by. we have had good support and God has provided in crazy and amazing ways as God tends to do.
i love the word "gobsmacked" and am pretty sure i understand what it means...crazy, huh?