Crazy Midwest Weather

We have had a lot of phone calls from friends and family concerning the floods here in Des Moines. We are so blessed to have so many people who care about us and want to be sure that we are doing okay.

I was quite concerned about all the rain we had been getting, especially when our friends who live in the building next to us woke up to soaking wet carpet a little over a week ago. I kept wondering what we would do if we did flood so Nate had to prove to me that the floods downtown were not going to reach us. He got on Google Earth and showed me that the elevation difference from downtown Des Moines where all the flooding is to here is about 200 feet. I was surprised that it is that much of a difference because we are only just a few miles west of where some of the flooding occured. Well, that calmed my fears of flooding a little. But I still find myself going into Brynlee and Gracen's bedroom to feel the carpet by the window to make sure it is dry... so far we are doing good!

I just thought I would post a few pictures of some of the flooding for those outside of Iowa to see, it has really been amazing how fast the water moved in and how much the people here worked together to help people in need, we are sure going to miss Des Moines!

the mile long bridge at Saylorville lake, the water is usually about 80 feet below this bridge

this is before the spillway was open, the water was rushing out and people were going up to see it because it is not normally this crazy.
this is a bridge downtown over the des moines river on Wednesday June 11downtown bridge 2 days later, the water nearly covered the arches and I think it may have been higher than this at its highest point

I believe this is in the Birdland area where evacuations were mandatory because of a breach in the levee

The picture above and below are both at Raccoon river park in West Des Moines, we go to this park quite a bit and just a week and a half ago I was down there and the water was high, but the water hadn't reached out of it's banks yet, now it is covering the shelters.

I found this last picture when I was searching for flood pics. A lady somewhere in Iowa took this from her back porch, it just touched down and went back up. I can't believe anyone can get pictures like this, I would have been hiding in my closet at this point, and if I wasn't in my closet I would have been there as soon as I saw something like this. Before all the flooding we had a lot of severe thunderstorms and most nights that they woke me up I layed there in bed telling myself that if there was a tornado outside, I would be hearing the siren. Sometimes I had to get up and turn on the tv to check and make sure we weren't under a tornado warning.

There was one night that we had a tornado warning and the sirens were going off and I started grabbing shoes and blankets and different items that I thought we would need and throwing them in our "tornado closet" just incase... Nate thought I had lost it, but I just am not so good at being prepared so I was doing my last minute quick preparations. This last week I got out our emergency bags and made sure they were well stocked, now I am ready... well, maybe not ready, but prepared.