The Rain Came Down & the FLOODS Came Up!

Early Tuesday morning (still in El Dorado) it began to rain. And rain, and rain, and rain! It has been a very long time since I have seen that much rain at once.

After lunch we decided to take the kids up to the studio to see Grandpa. As we were approaching the main road we had to stop due to a car being stalled in the road. So, we turned around & called Dad to find out how to get to the studio a different way. All the roads had so much water flowing over them that they looked like moving sidewalks! We were a little nervous that the van might not make it through the water rushing across the roads. But we made it fine. When we got to the main road again it was covered in water too. Cars were very slowly trying to make their way through the flowing water. We thought it might be best to cut through a parking lot in a shopping center. Our plan was to drive up to the top, right by the stores (it was up hill) & drive across that way. Once we got close to the stores, we found that there was so much water that it looked like a river! So, we decided to just head back to the main road & take our chances with the rest of town. We made it through that ok, but we couldn't turn onto the street for the studio because the dip in the road at the intersection caused the depth of the water to be about 2 feet! At this point we turned into a shopping center & called Dad for further instructions. He drove his jeep down to the intersection (the studio is only just up the hill on this road that we couldn't access!) to see how we should come across. Finally a route was found & we headed back. As we approached the turn we noticed that the Chinese place next to the McDonalds we were turning into was totally flooded! The water was as high as the side walk & close to flooding the building! It was insane! I wish I had gotten a picture of that, but I didn't.

Finally we made it to the studio & Dad grabbed a camera & went back to take pictures. He said that by the time he got back down there the water was gone!! It was only about 15 minutes after we came through there! How crazy is that?!

It rained on & off the rest of the afternoon & through the night. There is an 80% chance of rain today too. Wish us luck!

Here are the couple of pics that I took in that parking lot we tried to cut through. They really don't do the situation justice though.

Carrie loading the kids into the van prior to our heading into the flood waters!

A car deciding weather or not to cross in the parking lot.

The flooded parking lot we thought would be better to cross in! HA!