The Lord told Noah there's gonna be a floody, floody....

We had an entire evening of terrible storms on Thursday from 4:30PM until about 1AM Friday. Well, we ended up with about 6 inches of rain in Oshkosh, triggering some of the worst flooding Oshkosh has seen in years. Our street flooded:

I don't understand why people feel the need to joyride up and down a person's street while it is terribly flooded going a high rate of speed. I felt like we needed no wake signs to keep the water from washing up against our foundations. Our fence and our retaining wall held. Our gardens are all good, including the vegetable garden, where the beans and zucchini are sprouting. I was sure the seeds were washed away.

Our cars were in danger as well. We didn't put them in the garage because the water started flowing down our driveway like a river. We moved them to the neighbor's lawn. They made it!

The basement flooded:

Yes, that registers about 15 inches. This is what it did to the basement:

When I saw the water starting to come up, first I felt extremely ill and then I got Paulette to come down and get anything she really wanted to take upstairs, like Christmas ornaments, luggage, my fall clothing, snowshoes, the tools (we used them), the vacuum cleaner and carpet cleaner, etc. I had to make myself eat something. Paulette was on the phone to our insurance carrier at 1AM. Our check is in the mail now. We were up until 1:30 AM, along with the neighbors all down the block. We had the gas and electricity turned off because I was afraid the water would not stop coming up. I set my alarm to wake me every two hours so that I could check the water level. We also packed bags in case we had to leave suddenly.

At the 3:30AM check, the water had fallen a couple of inches. I felt a lot better. By the time I got up at 8:30, it was all gone, both inside and out. Then the fun began. We have been working since Friday throwing stuff out (more pictures of that soon) and cleaning. The laundry room is all bleachy clean now and we finished another room today. All that's left to clean out tomorrow is the room where we keep the Christmas stuff. Phil the plumber (he's a real character) rplaced our water heater Friday afternoon. A hot shower was blissful! We also got our electricity turned on without the requisite inspection (they'll be by later in the week) because we told WPS that someone has diabetes in the house who needs their insulin cold. It's true--Churchill did need his insulin kept cold--it had been in the cooler for over 12 hours, but it seems okay.

I got a little knitting done yesterday, but none today. Maybe some before bed.

Our friend Kyle just left our house. He doesn't have hot water yet, so he has been taking a shower here until his gets fixed. His house got even more damage now. He said he thinks it shifted on it's foundation a little. We are trying to talk him into turning one of his bedrooms into a laundry and furnace room. He is also talking about getting a tankless water heater.

Today after church we went to Sears and bought a new washer and dryer. They will be delivered on Tuesday. Our lawnmower also got flooded out in the garage, so we also got a new one at Sears (on sale!). We didn't try it out yet. The furnace man is coming to inspect the furnace on Tuesday to tell us whether we need a new one.

More soon--I'm tired now.