I awoke Saturday morning about 8:30 a.m. to lightning, thunder, and incredibly heavy rain. It was raining so hard, that the noise made it difficult to hear my husband speaking. It let up enough to hear, but it continued to pour. Soon, there was about 6” of standing water in our yard, and what my five year old dubbed “our river” rushing down toward the road. As of about 11:30 a.m., the thunder was so strong that the ground was rumbling.
Estimates indicate that we have had around 10” of rain since yesterday morning and it doesn’t appear as if it will stop anytime soon. We got 1.9” in fifteen minutes! Parts of our road are under water and a river not too far away has jumped its banks. Unconfirmed reports indicate that others have as well. Creeks and ponds are overrun, roads are underwater, and even one highway has been shut down.
There are evacuations occurring in neighboring communities, and shelters being set up nearby. Search and rescue teams are still trying to locate missing people and there is one (unconfirmed) report of a drowning. I’m praying it is a mistake and that the individual will be found.
I’m deeply concerned for families in this and other areas, and while things are a bit stressful here, we are safe for now. We keep the place pretty well stocked, so hopefully we won’t need to venture out. The kids are doing well. We are trying to stay calm and keep them busy and distracted. I decided it might help me relax if I stayed busy too, so I decided to write down these events to share with all of you.
I know we have readers in the Ozarks, and I hope and pray that you and your families are safe and that your homes also make it through this treacherous weekend weather unscathed. I know there was serious weather in other regions as well, and my thoughts wishes and prayers are with all those families too.
*I’ll try to update sometime after I learn more about injuries and damages and when things settle down once and for all.