Father's Day Flooding...

Soon after 18h00 on Father's Day, 16th June, some incredibly slow-moving thunderstorms tracked through Daviess County from the south-west. They weren't severe, but they dumped an unprecedented four inches (100 mm) of rain on Washington in a little under an hour. The ground was already saturated by heavy rain that had fallen over the previous few days, and the sewers and drainage systems in Washington were quickly overwhelmed.

We have never seen the water pond so quickly and little puddles merged into rivers which in turn formed lakes outside. We are the low property on our street and all the water was flowing onto our corner plot. Our house was soon an island and after moving our vehicles, we made the decision to evacuate, since we didn't know how high the water would rise.

Thankfully, the water crested about four inches below our floor boards. It was a close thing, but we were extremely grateful to find that most of the water had drained away the very next morning, with the exception of the crawl space, which was under water. I got the sump pump back online - after the breakers down there had tripped because of high water - and it quickly started pumping out all of that water.

It was a stressful evening, but through it all God showed us that He was in the details and that He was in control. It highlighted to us how amazing the community is that we have here. Accommodation just a few blocks from our home opened up that night, just like that. Our friends and neighbours were here very quickly, wading through the water and helping us carry out supplies and essentials. That was Jesus right there.

There are some questions that we have regarding the drainage here, but for now we are very thankful that the City had finished installing new storm drains on our property just ten days before this storm system hit. It could have been a lot worse. We are certain that the water would have been inside the house without those!

 The City had just finished installing new storm drains.

 We've never seen the water actually form a lake across the road.

 Our house was essentially an island.

By the next morning, all of that water had drained away!

The water crested midway up the first level of vinyl siding.