Hot, Humid Iowa Weather Turns to Flooding

We have had a lot of bad weather here in southeastern Iowa lately. The worst of the storms have been in central Iowa. For the past couple of weeks, The Des Moines Register has been printing stories about people who have lost their homes and businesses due to tornadoes and flooding. I have felt fairly safe until yesterday evening.

Yesterday started out very hot and humid. The sun was shining for most of the day. Then, around 7:20 in the evening, it started to get cloudy and the wind began to blow. The lights were flickering, so we knew the power would probably go out soon. I told my kids to turn off the air-conditioners and to unplug everything, especially the computers and televisions.

The wind was blowing very hard at this point. We stood and looked out the windows and watched limbs break off of our trees. Once we had everything unplugged, we rounded up the flashlights and the weather radio that is powered with batteries. We sat at the kitchen table and listened to the weather man report that the storm was now about ten minutes away from us. I started to think about all of the people who have recently lost their homes and all of their belongings in similar storms. I told the kids to hurry and gather up two changes of clothes and my son’s drivers license and check book. I got some clothes together for myself and put my purse and cell phone with them in the basement.

The weather man stated that the winds were estimated to be blowing at approximately 75 miles per hour. Suddenly, the rain began to pour down in sheets. It literally went from not raining at all, to raining so hard we couldn’t see 100 yards away. It was very frightening.

We scurried down to the basement and sat under the stairs with our flashlights and weather radio. Of course, we brought along our three cats. We kept hearing crashing noises from outside. We couldn’t see anything because the windows in our basement are up too high. The lights went dim, but were still on. I called me neighbor to ask if they had power and he said yes, but that we were all on half power. He advised me to unplug the refrigerator and deep freezer immediately. I did.

This storm brought a lot of thunder and lightening with it. I am always concerned about the house being struck by lightening because we live in a very rural area away from everything. Our house pretty much stands alone on the prairie, down a long, winding gravel road.

When the worst of the weather had finally passed over us, the kids and I brought the cats back upstairs. We were still on half power, so we left everything unplugged. About fifteen minutes after we left the basement, the power finally went out. It stayed off for nearly two hours. It was restored just as more bad weather rolled in. This time it wasn’t nearly as bad as before.

We have a lot of branches down in our yard that need to be hauled away, but thankfully, that’s the only damage we have. We were lucky. A fairly large sized limb fell onto one of my friend’s car and dented the hood. She was on the phone with her insurance company first thing this morning getting it taken care of.

Our yard is not only very soggy, we have parts that are flooded. When we flush the toilet it makes a gurgling sound. My basement has a couple of inches of water covering the entire floor. To make matters worse, there is a chance of rain again today. It’s already cloudy.

Iowa needs a chance to dry out so the local farmers can finish getting their corn crops planted. Some have finished, but most have not.

I am hoping for at least a week of sunny, dry weather.