The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

You all know the song, and over the weekend we pretty much thought everything was going to be washed away. I know it's not Hurricane Ike, but it's being called a Hundred Year storm. Massive amounts of rain fell Saturday and Sunday, some of it was from Hurricane Ike, all over the Chicagoland area and Northwest Indiana. Anywhere from 6 to 11 inches of rain fell depending on the area. We got around 8-9 inches of rain in our area and there is flooding everywhere. Gratefully our house was spared from any flooding even though our backyard was a bit of a pond, but our sump pump has been able to keep up with all the water draining. Others in our area have not been so fortunate. Everywhere the retention ponds are full of water and some overflowing.

Yesterday during church 20-30 men left to go help a member sandbag their home that is right on the Dupage river. After they finished that house, they went to another members neighbor's house that is also on the river to help her sandbag. After dinner Jeff and I decided to go for a family drive to check out some of the flooding. We went to the members home that they helped sandbag and they don't have water in the house, but their yard is completely submerged. Then we went to the other members house and their backyard is under 3-4 feet of water. When we got there the basement was starting to get water in it, so we went to work helping them move furniture. It was coming through their foundation because the ground is so saturated it has no where to go but into the house.

This morning Staci and I decided to take a drive back over to see it in the daylight. Crazy stuff! We went to the first members house again and the water had risen a few inches from where it was last night, but with the sandbags their house should be fine. We decided to go over to the other members house to see how their basement was and they had more water in it than last night. When we went last night the water was just about to the blue pads on their trampoline and this morning it's almost over it (see picture below), so the water had risen there as well. Staci and I help them rip carpet up and vaccum up some of the water for a while. I feel so bad for them. It's going to at least a week before the water drains from their backyard. We're supposed to have dry weather for the next week which should help.
Here are just a few pictures of what we saw last night and this morning:

(if you click on them it should enlarge them and you can get the full effect)

This is the backyard of the member of our ward. Their house is about a foot behind the sandbags. That is a telephone pole just behind that purplish bush. The river is supposed to be a 3-4 feet behind that.

This is taken from the end of their driveway. You can see their shed which is got about 2-3 feet of water in it.


This is from the bottom tier of their deck which is on the opposite side of the house from the driveway, closer to the river. We were standing on this part of deck last night and the water was right at the bottom of the deck, this morning it was even with the part we were standing on.

A retention pond that is overflowing into a drain

This is the river and it's about 6-8 inches from the sidewalk

This is the other member's backyard that is now a lake

See that in between the trees? That would be their trampoline almost under water

This was part of the riverwalk and bike trail in downtown Naperville

Some contruction they were doing along the river just off the road

The most fitting part of it all is that yesterday was our Stake Conference and all the talks were about being prepared in all apects of our lives so we can weather any disaster or tragedy that may occur. I guess I better get working on my 72 hour kits!