Friday, December 12, 2008

Flood Warning

Evacuating after the rain actually stopped (briefly)

The morning after ripping up the carpet.

Most of the people on our street (block) and on the street behind us were flooded. Our next door neighbors had 2 feet of water, we had 2 feet outside and about 6 inches inside because of sandbagging and bailing. The neighbor on the other side was totally dry. We were the edge of what got hit.

2 houses in Waialua floated off their foundations, Haleiwa also had 4-5 foot flooding. Today I am in school, after 20 of us slept at Kaity's house, and I've been awake since 2:30 am, actually up and walking around at 4. Yesterday morning the rain woke me up at 2, so I'm pretty crusty. We basically flung stuff up off the ground, in total denial that the rain would make it in, especially while we were actually bailing water out the window at record speed.

So I'm grateful that our friends are here to help us, that our house did not actually float away, that not everything was ruined, and that we have a place to go and food to eat and water to drink.

BUT, if I may complain for a moment more. This is just not how I imagined spending my Christmas break.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

yes you may complain. and i'm glad your things didn't float away. Aaron had some toys outside...they've floated away! Can't find them, so if you see a yellow rubber ducky, it might be his!

Heidi said...

Oh man! This stinks! I am so sorry! Like you said, not the way you want to celebrate Christmas! (I like your throaty chuckle, by the way!)

The Crash Test Dummy said...

OMGOSH! You did get flooded. You poor thing. I'm soooooooo sorry.

Kristina P. said...

Oh wow! The pictures on Crash's and Swirl's blogs looked like fun! Not this, though.

Sandi said...

Poor thing! I wish it was really all fun and boogie boarding instead of flooded houses and ruined vacations!

Melinda said...

That is insane! I can't believe that river flowing down your street. it's our rainy season too, and we have some leaks in the kids room, but i'm not going to complain about those anymore. sheesh!! what a stinky way to spend your break. what's going to happen? are you in for a flood in your house annually? now those stilts make sense.
are you going home for the holiday? we'll be here with my parents. they're going to DIE of heat. wow. good luck...

Karen said...

Mariko, thank you for posting the videos. So sorry!!!

Masayuki said...

I heard from Dad about this. Way sucky...

Mariko said...

I guess I can't complain right now. I am at Turtle Bay enjoying a little luxury for a few days, thanks to Brian. I spoke to several people whose houses were in 30 or more inches of water. At least our bed was high enough to be fine.

Tony said...

that's insane. it's worse than i imagined. did all that rain come down in one or two days?

sienna (not tony)

Mariko said...

The rain happened in like 5 hours. It started raining lightly at about 12am, and then hard from 2-9am. The flood reached our house at 6 am (and others on Naniloa earlier than that).

Funny Farmer said...

Mariko - I've never had a natural disaster flood, but I've had pipes leak, and I know that cleaning up is a royal PAIN IN THE PATOOTIE! I am so sorry.