Day 41 ❦ A community bonds through giving of themselves

Day 41 ❦ A community bonds through giving of themselves

The Gift: Time

This morning we wake up to an eerie silence marred only by the sounds of generators echoing throughout the town...and of course, the helicopters. We have made the national news and my phone is ringing off the hook. Although the electricity has been cut and the entire town is cloaked in darkness, I still have a phone that functions because I have an old-fashioned land line for just this occasion. Most of the newer phones are cordless and when the electricity goes out - so does the phone service. Not here, not today and my phone is ringing off the hook. We have no television and although I have a radio - I have no pictures. It is nearly impossible to get around town and since I have a front row seat to the flooding here, I have only a small glimpse of what is really happening - days later when I see some of the photos, I am speechless. My phone is ringing off the hook with friends and family calling from all over the world to check in on us,  asking how they can help. We all feel so helpless because there is nothing we can do at the moment except prepare ourselves for the work ahead, and, to give of our time to support those who have lost everything...we need to just listen.

My husband is a mental health responder for Red Cross and he gets called in to work first thing in the morning - he ended up taking several weeks off of work because there was no way to get there from here, so he jumped right in volunteering for the Red Cross and started working as one of a team in a mobile van that traveled around to assess, and support those impacted.

We would learn later that 283 houses and 84 businesses were destroyed and at least 2 people had died, estimates of the damage aren’t even being talked about because the water is continuing to rise, albeit slower. When the water crests today the Cedar River hit record crest levels of 23.4 feet and the Turtle Creek crested at 14 feet. Main Street is at least 5 feet underwater and access to the hospital has been cut off for most of the community.

There is absolutely no damage to my home, however survivor guilt is beginning to sink in as the people whose homes are completely underwater on the other side of the street are coming to my yard and just staring at the devastation. And as their losses sink in, they want to process, talk to anyone, everyone and here I am. I have my cookstove running full-time right now making coffee and set up all of the lawn chairs I have on my yard.  I sit outside all day sharing coffee and listening to stories as people process the magnitude of the force that is Mother Nature.

❦ A community bonds through giving of themselves