Pure craziness here last week ... I had heard the phrase '100 year flood' before, but really didn't know what it meant until we experienced here. It started raining the Wednesday before the weekend. I had no idea it would rain for about 5 days STRAIGHT ... ballgames, both recreational and high school, were cancelled Friday and Saturday. The boys' were supposed to play baseball Friday and Saturday - that was cancelled as well. In fact, we had so much rain on Sunday night, that school was cancelled Monday. I'm a product of Gwinnett County schools and I can't ever remember school being cancelled due to rain. But the roads on the other end of the county were suffering ill effects from all the water - rivers overtook bridges, water was flooding streets, and roads were literally falling apart. Some schools even experienced some damage. It all came to a head with a huge thunderstorm on Monday afternoon ... it rained as hard as I've ever seen. Ms. Maggie, our neighbor at the front of our street, said that her rain gauge measured 15" from the time it started raining Wednesday. But we heard other parts of our county got nearly 16" in a 48 hour period! Did I already say crazy?
The kids were back in school on Wednesday and we had some dry and even sunny days. However, this Saturday it rained hard again, causing our baseball game to be cancelled once again. My goodness! Needless to say, our grass looks great, the lake is nice and full (and it was starting to look sad ...) and I don't think we are any longer considered in a drought! Be in prayer for the families in Austell, as they are facing total devistation ... this was considered so much worse than a '100 Year Flood' that they are now dubbing it a '200 Year Flood.' So thankful for the Lord's protection of us during the storms ...
Here's the lake Monday morning ... the stuff floating on top is the grass clippings from our neighbors ... Kip NEVER thought they would get washed in the lake based on where he put them ... he wasn't counting on a 200 year flood! :)
This is looking to the left off our back porch ... there is a small sediment pond on the other side of our lake ... it over ran the banks and made a waterfall. It also rushed down around the sides as well. Bowdie and Chuck were very concerned for the dam on the other end of the lake, but it held really well ...
This is the lake behind our neighbors' house ... notice the john boat about to sink ... Amanda and Ms. Maggie went and bailed it and turned it over before it was too late!
Look at the water coming down the side of our house ... unbelievable ...
The hammock behind our house ... the water is usually not underneath it ... Chuck almost lost his little woodpile but the rain stopped and the lake dropped just in time ...
'RAIN DAY' FUN
Why not? After spending the day at home, we had to get out for a little bit. Blaine spotted this 'rushing river' over behind the Stokes' house, so he grabbed our snow board and took off. They had a BLAST!
This picture shows the river they played in. Don't worry - it did NOT take them all the way into the lake ... it flowed perfectly so that they stopped short of the lake, by a woodpile ...
See how fast the water was flowing? And it actually had slowed quite a bit from when it first rained really hard ...
Blaine got tricky and learned to spin on the board ...
Trying it double - didn't work really well because they were too heavy ...
And my NASTY toes by the time we walked back home ... pure mud and mush ...
Love these pictures, especially the ones of the boys having fun!
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