Summer Ramblings - Five Years Ago

For some reason, anniversaries divisible by five have the most importance in our culture (apart from the first anniversary of an occurrence.

Today starts the fifth anniversary of a flood event September 7 and 8, 2011 that impacted parts of upstate New York and other parts of the Northeast.

For the next several days I will rerun posts of five years ago.  Those days were so different from the weather forecast for today - beautiful, sunny, with low humidity.  Rather, over 10 inches of rain fell just days after we experienced an earlier tropical storm in what already was the wettest summer on record.

What a difference five years makes.

Today, the post from September 7, 2011.

Disasters - It's Our Turn

I am seven plus hours away from home (Johnson City, New York), on vacation.

This afternoon my son called.  We were in Freeport, Maine enjoying the outlet mall shopping on a rainy day here in the State of Maine.  We knew our home area was having very heavy rains and were worried.  But we tried to put it out of our mind and have a good time.

I had to evacuate my mobile home, my son said.  He (he's a night worker) was sleeping and a policeman pounded on his door. There was a mudslide and he had to leave his mobile home park immediately.

He had problems getting out but he was able to, in his pickup truck, and made it to our home (he has a key).

Despite a state of emergency, his employer wanted him to come in, so he's left for work now.

Before he left, he sent me a message on Facebook that he has heard that people had to enter his mobile home park in hovercrafts.  Right now we (and he) don't know what is happening with his trailer.

I told him to call his insurance agent.  I know that regular homeowners insurance doesn't cover flood but the little I know about mobile home insurance (my knowledge is about 30 years old!) he might have some coverage.  I don't know if he had a chance to.  He also told me that he is having issues with cell phone service.

We wouldn't even try to go home now, at least until the rain stops. We know the interstate we would normally use is closed now (about 20 miles from where we live). So we have to wait.  We know at least two major roads in our immediate home area are closed due to flooding.   We had major flooding in 2006 and know what that was like.  Part of our neighborhood was evacuated.  We were lucky-that time.

I decided to treat you to this taken in Sept 2016.  Isn't it lovely?

And meanwhile, the woman who took the wildflower pictures I posted earlier today - well, I had an email from her when I got back to our motel room.  Her sister, who lives next door, is flooding. She left work early to help.  So here we go again.

No matter how old your children are, you worry.   I'm sure he isn't worried but I am worried for him!

So I will tell myself:  We are safe, and our son is safe, and right now that is all that matters.   I pray my friend and her sister are safe, too.   And all I can do is wait and see.