Storm Clouds

Most nights of the week, I go to the gym about eight o'clock. On a typical evening I'm there between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on the level of commitment I'm feeling. That usually puts me back home between nine and nine-thirty. Last evening was far from typical, at it allowed me to knock another thing off my bucket list. Most interestingly, it wasn't even something I ever thought was on the list.

If you aren't from around here, or, if you didn't see the news about this area today, you may not know that we had a “Rain Event” last night. Depending on the report that you use, you could argue that we had between 7-10 inches of rain in 2-3 hours. It overwhelmed all the infrastructure that was built to take care of rain.

Now, I had always believed that when someone talked about flash flooding, it was something that happened in the low spot that looked like an old river bed, a natural draining point when there was more rain than the regular streams and rivers could take. Last night, I discovered how inaccurate that thought was. 

When I finished working out, I waited for a break in the weather to get to the truck. I thought the biggest issue I had to deal with was getting wet. I headed home by my regular route. Toward the bottom of a long shallow hill, I realized that I was in relatively deep water. I decided to make a move for the local Kum and Go, cutting into the parking lot with water rolling over the hood of my truck. I was fortunate to remember one of those weird things that someone taught me when I was young: of you're in deep water, drive with both feet keeping the RPMs of the vehicle up so that the water doesn't stop the engine. Glad I listened that day.

Anyway, I got into the Kum & Go which was high and dry and decided this was my place to sit and wait. Before long, the power in went off, making the whole thing feel just a little stranger. Over time, I came to a couple of realizations. First, I knew that the rain was slowing and that large amounts of water would start to find ways to get to the regular places that drained water away. Second, I was relatively sure that I wouldn't be able to get home by my regular route. Knowing this, I reversed course and headed for the Interstate, thinking that I should be able to get around all of this and get home from the other direction.

That thought process made perfect sense at the time, but I was so wrong! About halfway between two exits, the one I used to enter and the one I was going to use exit, we came to a stop. Now, be clear; I don't mean that we slowed down, I mean that we came to a stop. Apparently, in Altoona there were some 50 cars inundated on the Interstate and traffic had backed all the way to where I sat on the western edge of Des Moines. Not only that, but all the off ramps in between were under water. So, we just sat.

After an hour, or so, we did something that I thought I would never do (here is the Bucket list moment), drivers (including me) turned around on the Interstate and drove back up the shoulder to work our way off the on ramp where I had begun this entire mess. I ended up at the Toybox, where things were high and dry. After waiting  for another hour or so, I finally made my way home. At that point, it was sometime after midnight.

As I looked around today, both in the media and by driving the neighborhood, I recognized my great fortune. We had at least one lost life in the water last night and the number of vehicles that are damaged or destroyed is simply amazing. I have heard it said that fire and water are unrelenting, and I know that I have a much healthier respect for the power of moving water after some of the things that I saw last evening.

We sometimes fail to remember how frail we can be when facing the full force of nature. It is important that we all remember this and make sure that we take every precaution possible. I will tell you for sure, I will be looking at the weather app before I head for the gym on any evening when storm clouds threaten.

I hope you all have a great Fourth of July celebration.