You Can't Prepare for This

     I am an alarmist.  By that I mean whatever plan I make I always make a "what-if" plan for disaster.  My favorite book is the "Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook."  When I fly I always wear 100% cotton clothing and Tretorn tennis shoes.  Why you may ask?  Because in the event of a survivable crash, poly-blends may burst into flame and burn faster than 100% cotton and because Tretorns will protect my feet if I have to walk out of a crash site but they don't have enough tread that they will grab the emergency slide on the way down and break my leg.   I have a tornado room and a supply of "duck tape" and today I have a bathtub and several trash cans filled with water because our city is rationing water due to the recent floods and I want to be able to flush a toilet at least once a day. I like to think of myself as a person who is prepared.  It makes me happy and gives me the illusion of safety.  My husband says it makes me a little crazy.  I tell him that he knew I was crazy when he married me - and he did.  I told him about that flying thing before we started dating.  He knew what he was getting.  Do not feel sorry for him.

     Now, to the point of this story. Last Saturday (May 1st) Owen had his first ever sleepover.  It was raining when Joel headed out to pick everyone up but he had planned a fun day for Owen and his friends so off they went.  They began their afternoon at the comic book store because it was free comic book day (yippee) and then he took the boys to Michael's to get art supplies so they could draw their own comics and then he was going to take them to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and get pizza.  Well, the power was out at the "Wimpy Kid" theater because of all the rain so they came home and regrouped and headed out to see "How to Tame Your Dragon."   Joel called me about 7:30 to tell me that he and the boys were at Pizza Perfect and I mentioned that they might want to come on home before it got dark.  It was still raining and I told him that the news had just shown a video of a portable building floating down I-24. He said he'd seen that too and he agreed that it was probably best to cut the pizza portion of the night short and bring the boys home.  

     I had been home with Sarah and our dogs all day and I had noticed sometime during the afternoon that our sweet fluffy dog Sam just didn't seem to be himself.  He's eleven and has arthritis and I thought maybe all the rain was aggravating his joints.  By the time Joel got home, however, I knew it was something more than that.  He was laying on his favorite step and we couldn't get him to come up or go down the stairs - not even for a slice of cheese.  Joel and I took turns sitting with him and checking him over and came to the conclusion that something was very wrong.  So, Joel and my dad headed off into the rain to the Pet Emergency Clinic and both Joel and I knew that it probably wasn't going to go well.  Turns out Sam was hemorrhaging internally, probably from a malignant tumor.  So we made the decision to let him go and I said goodbye to my sweet dog on the phone and Joel held onto him until he was gone.  And it was all very very bad.  It was also 10pm and it was still raining and we were hosting a sleepover for four nine year old boys.

     We woke up to continuing rain on Sunday morning and started making plans to get the three boys home.  Around 9:30 we realized that we couldn't get anyone home because of the flash flooding. No problem, we'd put "Spiderman" in the DVD player and wait for the rain to stop and get the boys home that afternoon.  And then the power went out. And it just kept raining and raining and raining.  Joel took two of the boys on an excursion to Publix and came back to report that we were quite literally marooned and that the houses down below us were flooding.  It was 12 pm and it was still raining.

Joel offered to go to Publix to get some supplies and I realized that meant entertaining four boys who had been without electricity for many hours and that's when I decided to go myself.  Sarah and my dad went with me and what we saw was surreal.  Water completely covered Highway 100 and was within five feet of the traffic light.  We had to circle around and get to Publix the back way (from the high road).  I drove into the parking lot thinking there was no way the store was going to be open, but it was. Publix is based in Florida (home of hurricanes) and they build all of their stores with back-up generators. You couldn't buy anything perishable and the store was darker than usual, but other than that it was like a regular Sunday at Publix.  No one was panicked and people were sharing the bottled water (you take two and I'll take two) and sharing information about what was flooded and what was still dry. Very little was still dry. It also became very clear that we had no way out.  Every road that we could use was flooded. We headed up the hill to our house with a car full of drinks and cereal and poptarts and goldfish crackers.  It was 3pm and it was still raining.

Sarah at Publix

Sunday, May 2nd

Boys are boys and eight and nine year old boys are boys all the time.  They wanted to run at each other with sticks and jump off tall things and wrestle around everywhere and normally I wouldn't care (much) but I knew that if someone broke an arm or needed stitches we were in real trouble. We couldn't call 911. Our phone was out and our cell phones weren't working reliably except for the texting thing and I was pretty sure we weren't going to be able to text 911.  Also, they couldn't get here.  I yelled too much and told them to sit down too much and was basically no fun at all but they didn't know what I knew - that we were in the middle of a natural disaster.  So, Joel and I gathered up flashlights and made sure we had enough for everybody to have one when it got dark and Joel made a third trip to Publix and picked up a charcoal grill.  Around 6pm he made fire (woohoo) and grilled taquitos and calamari and chicken. I hung flashlights from the chandalier in the kitchen which was about the only thing that I did that halfway impressed the boys and we ate dinner and they told silly stories and scary stories and settled in to watch "Return of the Jedi" on my computer and eventually they all fell asleep.  It was very dark outside and inside and around 9pm it finally stopped raining for good.

Joel made fire.

And grilled frozen calamari.

     Monday morning was absolutely beautiful - blue sky, fluffy white clouds and green green grass. We were up early trying to figure out ways to get the boys out of here.  About 9am one of their dad's made it from Brentwood into Bellevue and I'm only kind of kidding when I say that he had to drive through Alabama to get here.  We were all very happy to see him and we quickly packed all the boys up, including Owen, and sent them out into the civilized world.  Poor Sarah had to stay with us but that's just the way it had to be.  Our power came back on early Wednesday morning and our lives up here on this hill are pretty much unaffected - hundreds and hundreds of our neighbors cannot say the same thing.  Their homes and cars were flooded and today they are cleaning out mud and debris and trying to figure out what to do next.  My community of Bellevue has been completely devastated and I know that we are very very lucky to have so little damage. We need new carpet in the basement and we may have some roof and gutter damage but Joel and my dad and five children and I rode out the flood of the century on top of our hill in Bellevue and we are all safe and sound today. I also know that someday these boys will all tell their own children about their adventure. I've joked that I need to get them shirts that say "I survived Owen's Sleepover and the Great Bellevue Flood of 2010."  And I tell you all of that to tell you this - no matter how prepared you may be, when disaster strikes you are flying by the seat of your pants. Fortunately, mine were 100% cotton.

Driving out of Bellevue on Highway 100

Tuesday Afternoon, May 4th

My only looky-lou photo.

This house isn't that close to the Harpeth River.

Can you see the water line halfway up the house?

I took this photo on Monday, May 3rd while we

were trying to find a way off our island in Bellevue.