Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Connecticut Flood!

After watching the news and seeing the devastation that is across Connecticut I know that we were totally watched over and blessed not only at work but at our home also. We are still on a flood watch because the major river in Ct. is continuing to rise. Norwich which is 20 minutes away got 10 inches of rain in 60 hours and the Montville 5 minutes from us were told to evacuate last night because of a dam that sits above them might break. As far as I know it hasn't.

Yesterday when I was at work we decided to close the center because the road in front of the center was being closed due to flooding. We started calling parents at 10:30 and we got the last of the children out at 2. The parents were unable to get to the center because the road was closed in 3 different places. We had 2 parents that got in but were unable to get back out. We had a parent at the top of the road coordinating with the police and we were told that we would be gotten out by a boat then by the National Guard. Then we were told that no one would be coming for us and to hold tight and that maybe after the tide receded that the water would go down. We are not close enough to the ocean that it was making that much of a difference. As of 9pm it was still closed. I believe that it is also closed today. We had parents climbing over the train tracks and one that wadded through the water, it was up to his waist. We had 4 parents that had gotten to the center and were waiting for the National Guard truck to come for a ride back up the road to CVS when we received the call that they wouldn't be coming. Five minutes later another parent came in and we asked how they got in and they responded that they walked but would be taking the 'Army Truck' back. I ran out front and asked them if they would take all of our parents with them. After they left we had 8 adults and 15 children. Carrie (one of our staff) helped another child over the train track to her mom and asked if the truck would be able to take another load. When the National Guard got to the center the rest of us jumped on the truck and went home. My boss was able to take her jeep out behind us. (I take my camera everywhere with me now that I have Hayden so I got some pics. of it) David had the car so he was waiting up at CVS for us. We took some of the other staff home and then tried to make our way home. Our normal route was flooded so we had to find an alternate route which was kinda fun because I was able to get some good pictures.
This is a parking lot for trucks not a water fall...

This is a house we drove by...

Can you believe this! This is another house we passed...

This is which way we usually go to work. I'll take a picture of it tom. on my way to work. David said the whole parking lot caved in.

The drainage system wasn't even able to hold it all.

This is the road in front of our center and the yellow is the train tracks that the parents were climbing over.

The parking lot of CVS you can see how deep the water is by looking at the shopping cart and the fire hydrant. The road is sloping up.

Terry in her jeep...

2 comments:

Gene and Jenna said...

That is so crazy! I am glad that you all had someone watching over you and that everyone was able to make it out safely! I would have been in a panic! Glad that you had your camera with you too, what an awesome thing to see, but catastophic also... Take care:) P.S. you swore!! haha. It should be dam ;)

Mutti said...

Wow. You had quite the adventure! What a mess this rain has been.
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