The Great Flood of '09. No, really.

Due to popular demand (and by popular demand, I mean three people), I'm back. The last month has a little hectic and it all started with a little flood. Well, a big flood. A really big flood. But not a flood big enough to warrant the d-bag anchor on a local news network calling it "The Great Flood of '09."

I'll admit, it was a pretty surreal experience. Not like anything I'd ever encountered before in my lifetime. And for that reason, I wanted to write about it a little bit. The details are pretty mundane and the pictures are a little boring, but it's something I wanted to remember. So read on if you want, and if you don't, no problem. I'm just doing this for my benefit.

It all started on Sunday, September 20th. I'd just returned home from an undisclosed location and settled in for the evening, when it began to thunder and lightning. It'd been raining pretty much all week, all over the top half of the state of Georgia, and I figured it was just going to be another stormy night. There's something a little off about the electricity in this house (any time it storms, things spark and pop), so I unplugged my TVs and computer, but for some reason, I forgot about the little internet modem. Biggest mistake ever.

I was sitting in my bed, on the phone with a friend, when he and I both heard the thunder and then the loud pop coming from the living room. I got off the phone, went in there to check it out, and found that my modem no longer worked. No problem, I thought. I'll just get a new one in the morning. I tried to go to bed early that night, but the storm kept me awake. I've slept through tornadoes before but this was loud. It thundered for over twelve straight hours and my particular part of town got about 20 inches of rain over the span of about eight hours.

My mom called around 5:00 AM and asked if my water was working because hers was not. I made a crack about not paying her bills but when I looked outside, I saw WHY her water probably wasn't running. My entire yard looked like a lake. I live on the side of a hill and the water was rushing down it so fast. A pair of muddy shoes I'd left out on the stoop were gone (I have since found one). As a matter of fact, there was trash in my yard that didn't belong to me. Parts of my yard had washed away and there were limbs and all sorts of debris everywhere. The cute little creek that had been dry since I moved in, in May, was overflowing so badly, that it looked like rapids. My car was a few inches deep in water and it was starting to come in up under my door.

All that said, I can't complain. So many people lost their homes and everything they owned, and in some cases, people lost their lives.

Anyway, I turned on the news and watched as the flood coverage began that morning. The county was without water, many were without electricity. Schools were closed for a week, as were many restaurants and stores. Actually, most everything that wasn't a grocery store or hardware store was closed. As soon as it got to be daylight, I picked up my mom and we set out looking for water. Many stores were already running out of it. It was kind of a weird day - the whole town seemed to be in shock.

I'm certainly not comparing it to other tragedies, but it had a very September 11/Hurricane Katrina feel, in that everyone around town was just sort of stunned and focused on the same thing. So many road were and still are closed. As a matter of fact, as we drove around that morning, we had to turn around several times because of overflowing creeks and rivers, roads and bridges washed away, downed power lines and trees, mudslides and even a missing person search.

It ended up being a long week. Thanks to the failure that is Comcast customer service, I had no internet, spent way too much time and money trying to get internet, and fell a week behind on work (which is one reason for my absence). We didn't have running water for a while because every other pipe in town was busted and when we did get it, it was brown and foamy and gross, so we had to boil it before using (or just not use and drink bottled water - if you could find it). It was a just a crazy couple of weeks.

Things are slowly getting back to normal, but it'll probably be at least a year before all of the roads are fixed. That's a pain in the ass because I have to drive out of my way to get to certain places. My yard still looks like it was washed away (which isn't so bad because of all the woods/lack of actual yard) and while the creek is still running pretty full, it's no longer overflowing. FEMA is still set up at a local church and people are still raising money for flood victims. And I'm finally caught up on work which is why I'm writing to you now!

I wish I would have taken more pictures, that first morning, of some of the stuff I saw but I was driving my mother around and well, I got tired of hearing, "Quit playing with your phone and pay attention to the road" every time I tried to snap one. I did get some pictures throughout the week, though (keep in mind, I took these with my phone and most of them while driving):

Not exactly flood related, but for some reason, I saw a lot of turtles in the week or two after. Maybe they washed up? Anyway, this is one of two I saw in my driveway...they were on top of each other. Not exactly sure what they were doing, but didn't want to find out. I moved this one away into the woods.

This is in the middle of a field - it used to be a fairly small, narrow creek.

This road is actually near me and I have to turn around almost every day when I leave the house and set out to ride up this way.

Another road closed; if you click on the pic, you can see just why it's closed.

This is really dark and hard to see but it's the normally nonexistent creek in my yard.

Again, hard to see, but Gabby drinking out of the few inches of standing water in the driveway. Funny, I spent a week giving her bottled water, yet the first thing she does every time we go outside is run and drink out of puddles or the creek.

This is what my water looked like when I tried to shower on the Tuesday after the flood. Yes, this is a BEFORE picture - the filth, foam, an debris came out of my faucet.

Traffic was really bad for much of the week. This is one of the main roads in town around 9:30 AM. Normally, it'd be empty.

Not important but most restaurants were not opening their doors due to the lack of water. This is from Taco Bell, which was drive-thru only.

Here's a little mudslide in the mall parking lot.

And another turtle. This one was out in the middle of the road, so I stopped and moved him/her over.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I failed photojournalism 101 with these pictures but it's all I've got!