Flood on North Fork of White River April 2017
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Hi All,
I wanted to take a moment to give everyone a quick account of what Joshua and I went through on Saturday night, for those of you who haven't heard. We went out to mom's house on the river (it's just upstream from Dawt Mill in Tecumseh, MO) at about 4:30 Saturday afternoon to help her sandbag and prepare for the 25' flood that was being called for. We have had 25' floods before and they aren't catastrophic in that area - just a little water in the basement, so that's what we were preparing for. As we were getting things ready, we kept a close eye on the radar, the flood levels, and the river itself.
When it began to look like we were going to get a little more than the 25' they called for, we started moving things to the upstairs level and drove our cars up to higher ground because the water in the front of the house (the opposite side from the river) was about starting to pool around them and we didn't want to risk water damage (ha!). When the water reached ankle depth in front of the house, Joshua walked back up to the cars to check on the low water bridge to see if we could get out. The road in front of the bridge was too flooded to even see, so we realized that we were going to be there for the duration.
We still thought that it was going to be maybe 26'-27' feet, which would have meant that we'd have several inches of water in the ground level, but the upstairs level would be completely untouched. We decided that we would move everything we could upstairs and then walk back up to the cars to ride out the rest of the storm on higher ground. At that point, we still expected the water to crest quickly and then start falling. That never happened.
About twenty minutes after Joshua got back from checking the bridge, the water in front of the house rose to waist deep and started pouring in through the cracks in the doors and windows, despite the sandbagging and silicone we had used to seal them up with. We knew then that we would not be able to make it to the cars, but still felt confident that we would be safe and dry upstairs, so we gave up on grabbing stuff out of the basement and headed upstairs at about 7:30.
Upstairs, we decided that we ought to go ahead and prepare for the worst case scenario, just to be on the safe side. We moved the most important things off the floors, lifted the furniture, and packed a couple of dry bags with blankets, some important electronics, an extension cord to use as rope, and some dry clothes. We determined that in the unlikely event that the water reached the deck at the second level, we would need to go to the roof because we wouldn't be able to after that. We did not imagine that could possibly happen, but still the rain was pouring and the water was rising.
At about 8:15, we heard glass breaking downstairs, and the water began to just rush in. It rose from being about waist deep downstairs to about two steps from the second floor, which put it at the downstairs ceiling, in about five minutes. That was when we got scared. We quickly moved things up to the highest point upstairs and grabbed a bite to eat (Nutella with crackers - what else?) and a couple of bottles of water to take to the roof with us. At 8:30, I called the Ozark Co Sherriff Department to let them know that we were stranded in the flood and were going to go to the roof if the water reached the deck. They said they would send water rescue teams from West Plains to come get us. At 8:54, the water was a couple of inches below the second story deck, so we notified the dispatcher that we were heading to the roof, put a small stepladder on a table and climbed onto the roof with our drybags and supplies.
We all had our phones, and all were at about 50% battery, so we felt ok about being able to stay in communication. Even at that point, we still thought the water was going to crest any minute and we would climb back down and wait it out. We didn't get off the roof until 6:00 am the next morning.
The water kept rising and had reached the roofline by 10:02. We tied the extension cord to the antennae that was at the peak of the roof (aka the lightning rod - we had to decide if we were more at risk of being swept off the roof or being struck by lightning!), and all held on to it for dear life. That's about when the buildings around us started to go. The scariest sound that I've ever heard in my life was our upstream neighbor's barn going - screeching metal, cracking wood, crashing trees... all in the dark. We were terrified that it would crash into our house and knock it off the foundation, but, by the grace of God, it went by just behind the house. Propane tanks were floating by spewing gas, refrigerators, walls, water tanks... it all missed the house. Our barn went down next, followed by our well house, and both miraculously missed the house.
We heard another building upstream go and a huge portion of its roof got stuck on four trees that were about ten feet upstream from the house. We were concerned that the extra pressure from the water pushing against the roof would cause the trees to fall onto the house, but we also recognized that it was diverting quite a bit of larger debris. Trees all around us started to go down with loud, crashing bangs - and were swept away in a matter of seconds. The water on all sides of the house was raging - so fast that we couldn't even identify everything that we were seeing because it went by so quickly.
I kept in touch with Lily via text messaging and with our upstream neighbor, who happened to be a first responder and was trying to rescue us. They both notified us that the first water rescue team was unable to make it to us so they were trying to scramble a helicopter out of Jeff City. After hearing for about an hour that a chopper was on its way, we learned that the choppers could not actually fly with the heavy rain and lightning, but that water rescue teams had finally made it down the lane with several boats and were going to try to rescue us. We could see the lights from the rescue teams and could sometimes hear them shouting, so we kept our headlamps on so they could see us. We saw them try to come toward us several times only to get swept up by the current and have to turn back. It was so disheartening to see them only 50 yards from us and know that there was just no way that they could get to us.
We saw those lights out there for hours. The water was over the roofline and about six feet from the peak where we sat. We started getting messages from our first responder neighbor to ask if there were still three of us on the roof and to tell us not to give up.
It never stopped raining. We were freezing, soaked all the way through despite our rain gear and the garbage bag that we were using to try to stay dry. We worked through several worst case scenarios - what will we do if a tree hits the roof, if the house gives way and starts to float or fall, if lightning hits us or one of the propane tanks... but we all knew that our chances of surviving any one of those things were low. So low.
Lily told us that she was calling the Sherriff Dept every few minutes, and everyone else that she could possibly think of. She said that she had basically mobilized a Facebook army of friends and supporters who were praying for us and were calling everyone they could think of to try to get us rescued.
At about 2:30 am, I realized that the water wasn't really any closer than it had been in a while, and so we identified a couple of objects to watch in order to really tell if it was still rising. Within about twenty minutes we confirmed that it had stopped rising - so it crested sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 am. By 3:30, it had started to go down pretty quickly. Then all the rescue lights went out and we got a message from the neighbor saying that the rescuers were going to have to wait for first light to try again. Those last few hours were the worst.
At about 5:30, we saw the lights come back on and the water had receded to about five feet below the gutters. A rescue boat made it to us at about 6:00 am, threw a life jacket up for each of us and told us that they could only take two people at a time, and would need to make two trips. Mom went down first, lowering herself off the edge of the roof using the extension cord that was tied to the antennae. They took her to land and came back to get us really quickly. The drop off the roof into the boat was as scary as anything that had happened the whole night - the water was still raging and I was terrified that I would miss the boat, but they were experts and managed to guide me into the boat and keep it steady without flinching. Joshua came next and then we were off.
They took us to up the drive way to dryer land and wrapped us in warm blankets, shoved us in a truck and drove us to our next door neighbor's house. Their house was a little bit higher than ours and had only been breached slightly. Our neighbor met us with dry clothes and directed us to quickly change. Everyone was worried about hypothermia, but we were apparently unaffected, even though we had been on a roof in the cold rain for nine hours.
We were still stranded out there because the road was flooded, and there was no water or electricity, but there were dry clothes, warm blankets, and bottled water. We felt like we were in heaven!
At about 3:00 pm, we learned that the water down the lane had slowed enough that it was navigable by a canoe, so we called Clint to see if he could find a route to come meet us at the end of the lane if we paddled out. He was able to get to us by going down Highway 14 over Twin Bridges to Highway 181. At 5:30, we were sitting in his truck on our way home, all alive and unhurt aside from a few scratches. Our house was still standing, although four of our neighbors had lost their houses completely. We counted about a dozen structures that were complete losses. Our downstream neighbor was about 20 yards from us and her house is completely crushed. Miraculously, though, not a single life was lost.
Truly, there were probably a thousand moments when one little thing could have gone differently and changed everything. We are so thankful for all of the prayers and energy that was sent our way - I swear that we could feel it!
This turned out to be a lot more than a quick summary - I guess I needed to get it out! I can't bear to reread it though, so please forgive me if parts of it are all jumbled up.
