Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Flood



Last Thursday, I had been a "single" mom for two weeks and three days. I tried to get a hold of Darin all day, but his phone was off. I then noticed that there were some large purchases on our debit card and I became concerned. At 9:00 at night, after being in a panic, I finally got a hold of Darin. Here is the story of his very eventful day. On Wednesday 9-7-2011 it was raining really hard at his job in Pennsylvania, so hard that his managers told them to call it a day and head home. All the guys went to bed pretty early that night, but were jolted awake to the National Guard banging on their door forcing a mandatory evacuation. The guys grabbed what they could and headed out the door in knee deep water. The Susquehanna River was flowing through their front yard and rushing past the house in the back yard. When Darin went to bed the river was about 40 feet from their back door. The guys loaded up in a 15 passenger van and after 2 detours finally made it out taking a chance as they drove the van through three foot deep water to escape the flood. They traveled to higher ground (NY) and the company put them up in the hotel. The area was declared a natural disaster zone and Darin was told that it would be a minimum of 5 weeks before he could return to work. The guys could choose to stay in the hotel or head home. Dairn decided to head home since he missed his family and now was not making any money. Darin flew home and finally called me to tell me the harrowing story at 9:00 p.m. when he landed in the Salt Lake Airport. Heather and Shane picked him up from the airport and we were re-united at midnight. I am so grateful that he is alive and well and not stranded on the roof of the house he was living in. The house's first story is still under water and it may take them a while to re build. In the mean time, Darin is hoping to help out with harvest with some of the larger farms in the area to at least keep some cash flow coming in. The video is of some if the destruction that occurred that night.

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