Yesterday I showed some photos on my blog about the "500 Year Flood" in Colorado. I've never been in any type of clean-up effort for a natural disaster before today, so when we got a call around noon to help a member of our church whose home had flooded I went in the clothes I had on and put on my new tennis shoes. About two seconds after arriving, my feet looked like this...
I won't show you what I looked like when we finished the job. For the record my tennies are white, and I was wearing white low cut socks that you can hardly see when my shoes are on. I had gone to this house with the assumption we would be clearing water out of a basement, but we realized rather quickly the task was much larger than that...
These homes back up against a beautiful creek that turned into a muddy river that flooded this neighborhood. Homes had anywhere from a few inches to 8 feet of water and mud in their basements. We were asked to help remove the mud from a culdesac that is maintained by the neighborhood homeowners association. This culdesac is just off a street that is maintained by the city. When we arrived there was about a foot of mud in the culdesac and the driveways of the houses. We worked with shovels, snow shovels and push brooms to move that mud away from the houses, down the culdesac, and onto the city street where city trucks could come and remove it. It was a long culdesac...
Our task was made a little easier when four-wheelers with snow plows were brought in to help move the mud...
I've never seen mud that has the consistancy of velvety dipping chocolate until today. Amazing. By the time we left the culdesac was mostly clear of mud. As we worked I didn't imagine that we would ever see the pavement, but sure enough it was there...
There may be more photos like this as I help with cleanup efforts throughout our town. Most of the roads have been reopened in Longmont and the waters are receding. It's so odd to drive through areas that look perfectly normal and then go to areas that are devastated. So sad, but I'm thankful that many areas were spared. It'll feel good to work in the other areas and try to make a difference.
