Day 40 ❦ Give everything you can

Day 40 ❦ Give everything you can

The Gift: My home, meals for rescue workers, life jackets everything and anything

Today presented so many unexpected giving opportunities, that I will be writing about this event, about the aftermath of this day for months...even now, when the rains come to the north of us and the rivers begin to rise, anxiety returns - collectively.

Over the course of the last 13 hours, 18 inches of rain fell in areas north of our town and although we all woke up to rain and wet, were oblivious to the devastation about to hit. I was absolutely frustrated as I listened to the radio this morning only to learn that school was cancelled...really??? Because of some rain? This is September when we should have months to go before we face a “no school day” and that just sets my day off - what am I going to do with my kids all day while I worked? Arghh...although now in retrospect, not only did the school cancellations result in children being home instead of being stranded at schools for days, but it also raised a little flag in my head....hmmm...
if the school district thinks something is getting ready to happen, maybe I’d better get ready too.

So off I went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies. Living in Minnesota, this is a common thing to do and I have a go-to list of things that I like to have on hand during a weather emergency, except today I decided to add a lot more water, and some bleach to the list. Who knows what could happen...I will be ready. As I returned from the grocery store, I noticed that water was filling the field across the street, the Cedar River was out of its banks and I could actually see the water rising. Our driveway is accessed by a road that frequently catches water from the Cedar when it is overflowing, but I have never been able to watch it rise, it is really moving so we quickly unload our groceries and move our cars to a higher point in town - time to start calling our neighbors so they can get their cars out too. Many of the people across the street in the apartments are at work and won’t be able to get to their cars in time (most of those cars were either washed down river or were lost in the current)...and the water keeps rising.

By 10:30 in the morning, emergency vehicles are swarming the neighborhood and other neighborhoods that are near the banks of the Cedar blaring sirens, shouting through massive megaphones to evacuate, evacuate, the river is rising...evacuate, evacuate immediately...evacuate, evacuate, leave your house immediately...and the water continues to rise, lapping at the bottom of our driveway, the current rushing so strongly it is creating waves as the water rises.

By 11:30 the Sheriff’s Department arrives and begins launching rescue boats from our driveway which now is 4 feet underwater. The activity is crazy across the street as people try desperately to remove any of the belongings they can out of their houses - the water has come up way too quickly to event think about sand bagging homes; but some of the businesses nearby have brought in large equipment to both dump sand for bagging and they are using front-end-loaders to remove their computers. It is quite a sight and I have a front row seat. My house sits at the top of a hill and on-lookers are starting to set up camp. And the water continues to rise.

At noon, a call for help to continue sandbagging for some of the businesses at the end of my street is made over the radio and people who can get here begin arriving...and the water continues to rise....and the current continues to rush. A friend of mine shows up with a canoe but needs life jackets - she has given hers to other rescue workers, so I give her all that I have - at this point in the crisis - there are still efforts to try to get some of the elderly people out of their 2nd floor apartments because the first floors are now filled with rushing water and she is on her way to help. My oldest daughter climbs in the canoe with her and they are carried away very quickly by the current. (In retrospect this was one of the most stupid things I have ever allowed my children to do because it was at this point in the crisis that people were being carried away by the current and one died). In all, 2 people died in Austin during this flood. But my sense of “what can I do to help? Is kicking in.

Electricity is cut and the urgency increases as the reports coming in from the law enforcement radios are indicating that the river will not crest for hours. News is spreading throughout Austin slowly - the power is down, but I have an old style phone that does not rely on electricity, so I have use of a phone and I have a stock of batteries that would make any Minnesotan proud. A church group shows up to try to get to the businesses asking for help and the have small children with them - I offer to watch their children, staring to realize the danger that I have just sent my daughter into. I now have a collection of small children in my yard who all want to play in the contaminated, icky water and boats running around in my yard. This activity went on for hours until the Sheriff’s Department began imploring people to stop helping and get out of the way - they were spending more time trying to rescue the rescue workers than evacuating the elderly from their homes.

As the rescue workers begin flooding into my yard, I realize what I can do to help! I can cook! I am Mama Caruso and I love to cook for people - so I fire up all of our camping stoves on the deck and put huge pots of spaghetti on. It was magical, as the food was ready, people showed up and they ate, gratefully - many not even realizing that they had not yet had any food yet today. I cooked all of the pasta and other food that I had in my house - we probably fed 50 or 60 people that day - it was incredible. They were able to use our phone and call their families to check in on them and let them know that they were okay, it was like a huge family gathering - people coming and going, sharing the stories that they had seen or experienced and gathering the strength to get ready for whatever was yet to come...because we hadn’t seen the worst yet.

❦ Give everything you can