Flood Report

My sister RaNae & her husband Jim are my heroes. I don't know how they do 1/2 the things they do. They own a construction company, he went back to law school, has a law practice and just ran for judge, he's been bishop, RaNae went back to school, they've raised 6 very involved children. Once they were even dubbed Family of the Year in their city. Now they're in the middle of a flood zone.

Jim on the news (and nephew driving the skidsteer):
http://www.theindychannel.com/video/16614238/?taf=ind

"It's been crazy this past week since our little corner of the world was flooded on 06-07-08. Tessa and I were about 150 miles away that day...The flood waters made it impossible to get [back] into Columbus from any side so we stayed in a hotel that night and came in on Sunday morning. Jim had been giving us reports all day and it just didn't seem real.

Real was what is was though - several sections of our city and county were flooded up to 19'. The worst of the public facilities was our hospital which had to be evacuated and will take about 6 months to restore, and one of our high schools which had 5' water in the gym and other areas. Beyond that, about 1500 homes in our county were flooded and many, many businesses.

Our own home was not in the flooded areas but we have several rental houses that were affected. Four had flooded garages and crawl spaces ...One house was completely flooded though - about 5' through the house. The house itself is a total loss, but thankfully it was unoccupied at the time.

We've spent nearly every day since the flood working somewhere. We had several ward members with damage and have also had ward assignments. We have helped clean out mukky, slimy basements and pull soggy carpet and pads. So many people have lost so much. This past weekend we had members in from other stakes in Indiana and Ohio and we worked in a trailer park near the church. It was such a mess. In addition to the water damage, there is this flood debris we call "cornstalk mulch" that is EVERYWHERE - tons and tons and tons of it - and I think we have shoveled and moved several tons ourselves. Saturday we had two skidsteers and a dozen wheelbarrows and we just shoveled and scooped and shoveled and scooped. whew.

The attached video is a news clip that was done where we were working yesterday. Jim was the supervisor of a group of about 60 volunteers and was interviewed. If you look closely, you'll see me walk by in the background with a wheelbarrow, and Thomas is driving the skidsteer. Everyone else is from Noblesville, just north of Indianapolis.

Somehow, when you're in the middle of something like this, hearing reports of it elsewhere - like right now in Iowa - hits even harder. I guess it's knowing exactly what they're going through and what they have ahead of them....

...Take care - love you all. RaNae"