On July 1st, a Thursday, we here at Roan Creek were experiencing heavy rainstorms. Living right next to the creek, it has become second nature to watch the level of the water. Despite being deluged with rain off and on all day, the creek continued to carry the excess water away. We watched as the water levels rose and fell throughout the day. Our grandsons picked up large stones to mark the edge of the creek around 10:30 p.m. before settling down for the night.
Sometime around 11 p.m., the fellow camping in a tent next to us knocked on the door. He was concerned about the creek rising. After some discussion, he and consort moved his tent and camping gear a little farther up the bank just to avoid problems. As they were moving the campsite, I went out and checked the water level. The creek had dropped close to a foot since the boys had placed their markers.
I woke up Friday morning around five o'clock. As I was slowly regaining consciousness, I was aware of an unusual sound. I can always hear the creek as it flows past the fifth wheel, but there was something different in what I was hearing. I looked out of the window next to my bed, and I could see moonlight reflecting off the water. It seemed as though the creek was all around us. I knew that couldn't be accurate, so I got up to go check things out. This is what I saw when I opened the front door:
I woke consort and filled him in on what was happening. He opened the front door and just stared. When he turned back to me, he had only two words: Let's go.
When we turned from the door, we saw our two older grandsons standing in the living room awakened by the commotion. We directed them to get dressed, including shoes, and be ready to leave the trailer as quickly as possible. I woke up our seven-year-old grandson and readied him to vacate the fifth wheel while consort leashed up the dog and cat. By 5:40 a.m., everyone was ready to go, but we decided to wait another ten minutes for the first light of day before traversing the flood.
Looking out the front door, we could see one of the rugs originally placed in front of the camper was now tangled in and around the front steps. Consort set to work moving it so we could safely go down the trailer stairs. While he was working in the rapidly flowing water to free the rug, I made my way around the front of the fifth wheel to check for any dry place we could move to.
From the front of the trailer, we're about ten yards to the park gazebo which sets on higher ground than our camper. There was standing water between the gazebo and trailer, but no strong current. It looked as though we'd be able to easily wade through the water to higher ground. However, in the time it took us to untangle the carpet, and then dislodge a bicycle caught on a leg of the fifth wheel, the water continued to rise and the flow became much faster.
As soon as the first light appeared over the mountain, we began the evacuation. Consort helped our youngest grandson down to the ground. The water came up to the top of his legs. I took his hand and the two of us walked around to the front of the trailer. The current coming from under the front of the trailer knocked Youngest's feet out from under him. I had no problem hanging onto him and keeping his head above water; but once his feet were firmly under him again, fear overcame and he began to cry. That was the hardest thing I had to deal with all day. (Gulp!) I stopped just long enough to hug him tightly to me, then got him safely to dry ground.
Consort handed middle grandson out to me next. Middle is almost 11. He and I crossed to dry land, without incident, where he joined his brother. Next in line was our oldest grandson who is nearly 13. I suppose I didn't really need to hold his hand, but I did anyway. It was fate. As we rounded the front of the trailer, I stumbled. Without hesitation, and with more strength than I would have imagined, Oldest caught me and then walked me safely to dry ground. Consort followed right behind us carrying D.O.G., then made a second trip back for Fulton, the cat.
By the time we were all safe at the gazebo, the sun was fully up. Our tent-camper friend had moved all of his gear up onto the gazebo mound. Both he and consort moved their trucks up next to the gazebo. There were campers staying in a cabin across the road from the gazebo, but we could not physically reach them. The road had turned into a raging river. We were all most concerned about the campers closest to the bridge. We could see they were in some pretty deep water.
There's no question we were all shaken up, but everyone and everything was in one piece. By 10 a.m., enough water had receded to allow us back into our campsite. We lost innertubes and water shoes that were outside the front door. The flood carried away our picnic table with the umbrella still attached. We found it later flipped upside down and wedged next to a tree. We lost all the camp chairs, but the grandsons found two of them later in the day. The fifth wheel survived without damage and without moving. The water never did quite reach our bottom step. All the "basement" bins were dry.
One of the pictures below is of the RV that was closest to the creek. They had water in all of their "basement" storage bins. In the picture of our fifth wheel, you see the stabilizer leg and blocks. All of the rock and dirt around the blocks was washed away. Luckily, the ground beneath the blocks held firm. Before the day was over, we hitched the trailer and smoothed out the ground beneath the stabilizers, then reset the camper.
There must have been heavy rain upstream that idled for some time to cause the flood. And that was just one night of rain. The ark and the flood have been topics of conversation around our place since we visited the ark the first part of June. Living through our little flood gave us all a new perspective. 40 days and 40 nights. Can you imagine?
Later in the day, we went out for a drive to see what damage the flood had done. We were both surprised and pleased to find that, with the exception of our creek and the land surrounding it, there wasn't any flooding. We saw this rainbow on the way home. Did you know that a rainbow is a sign of God's promise to never again destroy the earth and all its inhabitants with a flood? It was a beautiful sight to see.
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