There have been so many amazing stories during this flood. These are just some that I have experienced or heard told to me. I know there are MANY more. I hope I can collect a few of them. It is just amazing to see how people respond under the most difficult of circumstances. Here are some great stories:
When Your Basement Fills Up
The night the flood hit, I headed down to where my family was working. I was taking pictures all along the way. As I neared the Dunkley’s house, one of my friends said, “you need to go see inside.” So I walked in with their daughter-in-law. It was getting dark outside, kind of dusky. But in the house it was dark. The power was off because the ceiling of their basement had collapsed. Water had filled to the top of their stairs and soaked the drywall. The basement ceiling collapsed, pulling the wires out of the walls and ceiling, too. As I came in, Lisa was inside her kitchen doing the dishes. Someone came in with a spot light and headed downstairs to light the room in the basement so they could keep working. A candle was lit in the kitchen, giving off very little light.
Lisa said to me. “I know it seems crazy doing your dishes in the middle of a mess like this, but I am just overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, so I’m doing what I know how.” I found it interesting and profound somewhat. She was just calm and was doing what came instinctively when tragedy struck– Just clean something and do something. Then she said, “a reporter interviewed me today. He asked how I could be so calm. Well, what do you do? You can’t change anything. Crying won’t solve it. So we’re just going to calmly go about it. And besides, look at all these people that are here to help.”
As I went down the stairs, they were covered in mud and insulation. It was hard to even walk down them.
I peered into the basement and found insulation and what I assume was drywall underneath it in a pile.
They were trying to light up the room and take some 5 gallon buckets and begin scooping out the insulation and handing it out the window to someone. But because it was getting so dark, I think they may have waited until the next day to do it. At least I saw them dumping buckets of insulation into the dumpster the next day.
On Saturday, I stopped by the Dunkley’s delivering ice and water. It was a hot day and the wet mud made things even more humid. But the worst part was the smell. For some reason everywhere we went on Saturday, things were really smelly. I don’t know if it was manure from the fields or if the stuff buried in the mud was starting to mildew or decay, but it smelt like manure or something. And here were all these people in the yards working, shoveling dirt. Lisa was on the side of the yard, re-aligning the stepping stones between her yard and the Smith’s. She had a smile on her face, was grateful for cold ice, and more than that, kept saying how appreciative she was of all these people helping out. Two young girls had been shoveling and doing some hard labor. She gave them permission to stop that and asked them if they could just clean out around her bushes. She pointed to the pile they had cleaned out and how grateful she was for these girls. I was in awe. There was still a bunch of mud in her yard and it is going to take a while to get it all out. She said her house was all gutted and cleaned out and drying. A cheerful disposition among the muck. How I admire her!
The visit to the Dunkley’s house was powerful for me. I learned that when things go bad, we do what we can do instinctively as women….our dishes or our simple daily, motherly routines that can bring us some peace. I learned that LOTS of people in your neighborhood show up and some of them have a clue where to start and where to begin, which is nice for those of us so overwhelmed that we are frozen.
And I learned that the Dunkley’s are just strong, good people who handle adversity with a sense of humor and good old fashioned work. Lisa’s great-great grandfather was Andrew Gibbons. It just so happens that he was one of the first missionaries called to Santa Clara, and I am guessing could have been around when the first big flood came through here. He had a tough life. I’ve read his stories. He and his wife were amazing….and so is their great great granddaughter. She has been blessed with that same spirit. It shows in her face!
Sometimes, you just gotta do your dishes. Even if it doesn’t make sense. It brings peace to a weary soul.