Flooding in Iowa

What a week we've had in Iowa. Here in Clear Lake, things haven't been nearly as bad as other towns. Last Saturday evening, we sat in our basement eating pizza while the tornado sirens blared outside. Thankfully, there were no funnels sighted near us but we had a TON of rain overnight. Almost 6 inches fell in the 24 hr period from Saturday into Sunday. After church on Sunday, we noticed some water on the floor in one of the downstairs bedrooms. Mary soon realized that our sump pump had failed. I quickly ran into Mason City to the Fleet Farm store where I was lucky enough to get the second to last sump pump on their shelves. During the drive over to Mason, I was amazed at the amount of water in the fields, but that was nothing compared to what was happening in downtown Mason City. The Winnebago River had risen to record levels. The flood stage there is 7 feet and the record crest had been just over 13 feet. On Sunday, the river crested at almost 19 feet! Many homes were flooded and the city's water treatment plant was shut down.

For the rest of the week, Mary and the girls were away at camp and I was at home with the 4 little ones. Several times each day I was ShopVac-ing the girls' room trying to get the water out of the carpet, but this was to no avail. I eventually had to pull all the carpet and padding out and we'll be replacing it, hopefully this week. Nothin' else happening this week..... only Jeriah's wedding! My brother Tim and sister Sheridan will be coming in on Thursday. On Friday we'll go to Des Moines. My dad and his wife Julie will be flying in to DSM that day, as well as Sher's husband Brad. We'll have the wedding rehearsal Friday evening, the wedding on Saturday and a cookout back at our house in Clear Lake on Sunday. We're looking forward to some great family time! Pics soon to come.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads!
John