On Monday September 8, 2014 the floods came. The weather was predicting rain but lots of times here in the desert we just look at that and say "yeah right" but this time they were right. I took this picture of my weather app about 2:30 right about the time that Cayden was coming home from school. It shows that it was raining but at the time it really wasn't. With in a few hours that had changed dramatically. The rain started about 3 and it rained and rained and rained. Then the power went out about 4 until about 4:30 when it kicked on for a few minutes but then it went out for good until 11:30 that night. About 5:30. after the power had been out for over and hour, we decided to just get out of the house and go for a ride. We drove over to Grandma's to check on Connor. There was a lot of commotion on their street and not long after we got there we heard that there was a big wall of water coming down a wash and it was headed right for their area. The wash had a diversion that had been built back in the 80's but it had broken so the water didn't divert to where it was supposed to.
This is from the top of the overpass looking south on I-15. This is the traffic backed up after the rain because the freeway was gone. A big wall of water came down a wash that ran right under the freeway but there was so much water that it just took out the freeway with it.
This is the water going over the freeway right about the Glendale exit.
This is the water that was coming down a different wash right at Dottie and Dave's house. This was about 6pm right as the water had crossed Whipple street and came around Jones' house and through Ellen Whipple's house and yard.
This is how we spend several hours with several neighbors. We were shoveling and sweeping the water away from the house and out through the gates to keep it from getting in the house. The section of fence right above Dottie's head is the fence section that Caleb broke down so that there was more room for the water to go through.
This is how Caleb, Connor and their friends were getting around to help people after the flood. They rode around on 4 wheelers to get to people and help them shovel mud out of their yards and away from their homes. They helped move hay that had gotten wet so it wouldn't internally combust. They moved debris like limbs and logs and rocks that were in the roads and along side the roads. These boys worked really hard.
This is part of the bread, milk and eggs that we collected to send to Moapa who was cut off from the world because of the freeway damage and because they had gotten hit really hard with water coming from washes and the Muddy River. This was on the Thursday after the flood. We got word that they were running low on some staples and that an Metro officer was able to get them and he would take up whatever we could gather. I sent out a mass text to all the sisters in my ward and asked for milk, bread, and eggs and within 45 minutes the back of my suburban was full. We were grateful for the opportunity to help.
When they finally got the freeway to get to Moapa we were able to go up there and check on some of our friends. This is the home of the Aunt of some of friends who used to be in the ward (Laurie Flynn's sister, Heather Flynn's aunt). The water came through and basically wiped out the ground underneath their home and made it unsafe.
This is my emergency food supply in case the water came back. I also had a case of Ding Dongs. There was more rain slated for the next week but it didn't ever happen.
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