The Day I Almost Built An Ark

Local Falls near my house

The month of May was beautiful! Clear blue skies, and 80 degree temperatures with no humidity. June has NOT been so wonderful. I can't be sure, but I feel like it has rained almost every day this month. It has been awful! One day in particular was the most awful day. It was a Tuesday, and my mom and I went to the produce/flower auction. Of course we were under the threat of rain, but we journeyed anyway. After the auction, we had a few errands to run, and it kept getting darker. And darker. And darker! We were about  5 minutes from our house and it finally let loose. When I say it poured, I mean it POURED! We had the works, thunder lightening, torrential downpours. It lasted for what seemed like hours, but in actuality, probably an hour and a half.

The aftermath was when I wanted to find Noah and have him build me an ark. My mom and I started to bail out our window well for what seemed like the 100th time that month. As soon as we would get three buckets out, it would fill right back up again because it was raining SO HARD! Our drainpipes were swirling and filled to the brim with water. The low parts in the yard were up to your ankles in water. The ground just could not handle all of the water that was coming down. 

*Little known fact: in the field behind my house, is the highest point in the county where I live. Highest point + 3-5 inches of rain + An absolute mess.

So now is where the fun part begins. Remember, Mom and I are bailing water out of the window well. Our laundry room starts filling up with water. My mom and dad go around to the front of the house (to make sure our drain is working properly), and lo and behold, OUR NEIGHBOR'S LAKE IS OVERFLOWING!!!! It looked like Niagara Falls coming down the bank and on to the highway. My other neighbor had a nice little river running though his yard as well. 

My neighbor's lake overflowing

I live on a major road that has a lot of truck traffic. So this big Mack truck is flying down the highway, and sprays water everywhere! So I call 911 to tell them that my road is flooded, because of the overflowing lake. On the other side of the highway a tree came down and knocked power out and was across the road. So the only traffic that was allowed on our road was thru traffic and power/cable crews. There was also a bulldozer going as well to clean up some debris that accumulated on the road as well. The lake continued to overflow for a good hour, and finally started to recede. 

After all of the torrential rain, as soon as it stopped, the sun came out and it was as hot as blazes out. I helped my parents clean up our basement, and we were all emotionally and physically exhausted. So thankfully, I have wonderful grandparents and they took us out to dinner so we didn't have to dirty our house and we could let everything dry up. Then we went for ice cream, because that just makes everything better. After dinner we drove around and went to the falls near my house, and it also looked like Niagara Falls. 

About 5 minutes from my house, a creek overflowed into a cornfield, and hundreds of fish were in the cornfield trying to get back to creek. It even made the local news!

So if you happen to hear of Noah, send him to Pennsylvania so he can show us his ark building skills. 

Have you had crazy rain like I have been having in the month of June? Has your summer been sunshiny and hot? I want to find out! Leave me a comment and let me know!!