The Great Flood of Aught Nine

So yesterday afternoon it started to rain (and thunder and lightning).  And it didn't really stop.  I figured we might start running into trouble when I noticed that the water running down the street was hitting the back of a car parked in front of our house and pouring into the yard.  We live on a park, just up the road from a little stream, and neighbors across the street are actually in a flood plain.  So when I saw them walking down barefoot to look back at the park, I thought we might have a problem.  Plus, I started to notice that cars would drive past our house and then turn around which meant the road might have flooded.

When JP got home from work we suited up (yay that I still had my sister's wellies from my trip to Ireland!) and went out to take a look.  Wow.  We figured the stream would be just a little high.  Nope, the ENTIRE park was flooded.  We're talking a river that's usually 10-15 feet below really steep banks had flooded.  Not only that, but fire and rescue was there with huge rafts because they had word that people had been trapped in the park (and I saw a guy going jogging in that direction right when the storm started --  not smart!)

Here are some pics we took (only had the iPhone hence no zoom).  The first is fire & rescue walking along the path.  Yeah, all that water?  So not supposed to be there.  It was as high as my wellies (and had snakes!!).  I'm standing on another path that's about 50 feet from the edge of the smaller creek and looking toward where the creek meets the river.

The second pic is looking out over the soccer fields.  If you click and make it bigger you can see that the water is almost to the top of the goals.  Our house is to the left, the river is WAY off to the right.  When we left the park (after the water had receded a TON) we saw kids swimming on the soccer fields.

The third pic is after the water started to recede (had stopped raining for about 20 minutes at this point.  This is the creek in front of us and beyond that is the parking lot.  To the right is the river.  In the distance you can see a car that got trapped by the water.

Totally crazy day!  What was funny is that I think we met more of our neighbors yesterday staring at the water than we have ever before.  As the rain eased, people just started pouring from their houses to come down and tell stories about the last time the park had flooded (no real consensus as to when that was, but it's only done it 3 times in 40 years according to one guy).

As far as we know, no one was injured in the park though apparently they had to pull some people out of the water.  It was definitely surreal to be sitting at my desk and see the fire trucks go by with the big orange rescue boats on top.  Anyway, that was my day yesterday!