Make the Flooding Stop

Just an update... I live in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm ok, but all around me is not.

Fremont, Nebraska has no direct route in or out. Some have had to evacuate their home. Many of the people that live there work in Omaha. I work with someone that lives in Fremont. His wife was stuck in Omaha, while he was in Fremont. She did make it home by driving on a street that was closed soon after she drove on it. They've had to work together to make sandbags. Many took each other in. Fremont has never had a flood problem like this, so many didn't have flood insurance.

HyVee (a grocery store) drove 5 huge trucks of food on back roads to Fremont to donate food. Good things do happen in bad situations.

Source

Waterloo and anyone by the Platte River is also under water.

This street is supposed to keep going:

Source

Offutt Air Force Base is now partly underwater.

Source

It happened so fast! That's why people didn't get out. We had a ton of snow on the ground still, so with getting a ton of rain, there wasn't anywhere for the rain to go.

When the rescue missions were occurring families had to leave live stock behind. Horses can swim, but they are finding some animals dead.

Shelters have actually not been used a lot. They attribute that to good friends and family that have taken them in.

We have not been out to see any damage. They said for people to stay away, so workers can do what they can. Plus it's just dangerous.

Here's all the roads that are closed:

It would be hard to travel just about anywhere in Nebraska and Iowa right now. Anywhere there was a river or creek there's flooding that happened.

We did drop off a ton of water at a shelter spot. One area has contaminated water, and others that don't have a home needs many things.

I worry about the people, their homes, them having to rebuild, livestock gone, and food prices going way up from farmers not having a farm.

We're safe and sound being in the middle of Omaha.

Rainy!

I really don't mind the rain. Well I do mind that my office ceiling leaks, and it's been "fixed" about 15 times. We've had rain the last 6 days, and it's still raining.

Our airport received 5.25 inches by 5 pm yesterday, breaking the previous record for this date of 1.97 inches set in 1977. It was also the sixth highest daily rainfall of all time in Omaha. The most ever recorded was the 6.46 inches that fell on August 7, 1999.

We're not having flooding problems, but others are. Not too far from us in Council Bluffs, some Iowa schools had to close because it's a flood plain.

Car after car is getting stuck in the muck.

Approximately seven inches of rain fell in Council Bluffs overnight. Streets were filled with water Wednesday, parking lots along were swamped. Some tree limbs were down and they took power lines with them. 

Where I live in Omaha it's just been raining and raining. On Tuesday hail came with the rain.

Yesterday I had a major assignment due. The students were on panic mode because it was raining. How could they possibly get it done on time when they have to spray their projects outside? We opened up a door in the school garage for them to use. I still had a low number of students that turned the project in. I think everyone is just off from the weather.

It feels like it's spring, but it's fall.

What has the weather been like where you live? 

Trip to KC

We had a long weekend, meaning a lot to do packed in a few days. This will repeat in a few weeks when we go back to KC for another wedding.

This time my cousin Brent got married. They looked great and happy! They've been together for awhile.

Congrats to them!

Some of her family had trouble traveling because of hurricane Irene. :( We got there, but had trouble because the interstate is closed down with all the flooding. :(. It took 4 hours to get there when it would have taken us 3 hours.

It still was a very nice wedding! :) Everyone looked great! I loved watching my cousin's (groom's brother) kids walking down the aisle!

Those kids (Colton and Kensley) are so cute and know it! ;)

The reception was fun. Our kids were a little stir crazy at first. *Remember they were in the car for four hours. Mica totally looks like he's ready to hit Daddy or Grandma in the face. He really was a spazz at the beginning of the reception! Then calmed down once we had dinner.

Isaak loved giving my cousin Stacy's baby Alex attention! He's really cute! I held him for a bit to!

Great Grandpa Kent was a amused with three things: Baby Alex, playing with glow sticks and watching Daddy and I lip sink back and forth. We pretended the glow sticks were microphones. ;)

Grandma and Grandpa Spiehs (mom and dad) dancing. Not such a great photo. It was dark in there! Not bad on the dancing part for my mom having a fused ankle!

We tried to dance, but got interrupted each time with kiddo's. Oh well!

On our way home we saw:

Flooding!

It will be a long time before the interstate is up and running again! BOO! We have friends in KC and Daddy's family lives in Moberly, MO. The trip to MO is way longer now! Moberly is further yet. That should be an interesting trip with two young kids. Daddy can't stand their sound effects in the car as it is. I also usually go with my students in the spring to KC for a field trip. They say it will be a long time before the interstate is repaired!

Amazing windmills!

I will show more photo's of these later. I have better ones to show for later.

Dark clouds!

It rained a bit closer to home. Mica said the clouds looked like bacon. Maybe he was hungry. I didn't think they looked like bacon; they most certainly looked crazy odd.

I Want to Scream!

It's not any one person's fault. I just want to scream. Scream because things just are not going right.
I've been so preoccupied that I didn't even know that this happened today! I'm not going over it. It's just that it has to do with the flooding going on. The problem is getting worse.

Guess what? It's raining! Like cats and dogs! My allergies are going crazy like! Mica is now afraid of storms. Whenever it storms he tosses and turns in bed.

I took my boys and cousins Evan and Elijah out for a walk just to get them out of the house. We're a mile away and I heard thunder. Not really what you want to hear when you have 4 small boy's with ya. I started fast walking with the stroller and saying, "Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me because I'm Lissy Ann!" Lissy is my nickname by the way! I also made up all kinds of crazy songs that made Evan giggle. 

Isaak wouldn't nap all weekend! He keeps pretending to be what he calls, "The Bad Guy!" I've pulled him aside countless times to tell him that I want him to be Momma's "Good Guy!"

I can't focus to get one single thing done.

This sweet little baby Emerson has me worried:

I think I can say that everyone in our family is lacking on sleep because they are worried about Emerson and my sister's family. Emerson is sweet, cuddly and cute! He is also on O2 and a feeding tube. I just want everything to be ok, and I know it won't be. We're all taking turns to help out. I sometimes feel like I'm not doing enough. I took Evan and Elijah in a night and a day while they were in the hospital, I held the baby so my sister could eat lunch today and I took the bigger boy's for a long walk. Then Daddy spent time there last night. But my parents and my older sister have been there much more then I. That's why I feel like I'm not doing enough. They tell me not to come. I have my own two crazy kids! Like the one that won't nap! It's just so hard.

I remember what it was like having a sick baby or two. With my babies they got better, but at the time I didn't know if they would. One of my sister's was out of town when Isaak had meningitis and Grandma Spiehs was really sick! The doctors were stumped with Mica's staph infection and Isaak's meningitis (weather it was bacterial or viral). We got up in the middle of the night to mess with IV antibiotics. Many steps involved. I pumped, breastfed. It was a lot. Especially when Mica had his staph infection and was allergic to his antibiotics! Talk about scared! I was freaking out! 

I love my family. Especially in times that are hard!

Omaha Mayor Signs Flooding Emergency Declaration

On the news last night, the mayor declared Omaha in a state of emergency! Yep it's where I live!  It's pretty scary.

Image found here.

I'm not worried about our house, but Daddy just got an email from the gallery where his work is at. If the downtown area gets word, then he has to go remove his sculptures right away. I just feel for everyone that looses their homes, farmers that will loose everything, more businesses that go under and families that are scared.

Image found here.

So, if you don't live in the midwest. This may not effect you now, but it will in the long run. Farmers are having a hard time growing things right now. Food costs will go up next year; even more then they already are. We're going to be diving into the debt that is already scarce. Gas prices I'm sure will go up too!

Image found here.

Traveling is hard as well. Portions of Interstates 29, 680 are to closed due to flooding.

It's all pretty scary.

I came up with this wonderful Idealist way of thinking. Daddy told me it would never work. I thought about big tanker trucks sucking up water. Then dumping it into Ideal water tanks. Ideal is a water company here in Omaha. They could filter the water, bottle it and become a HUGE company. They'd become so huge that they could donate to places that are in need. They'd have so much money that they'd find a way to package in reusable stainless steel instead of plastic. Ok so that last sentence was far fetched! But, the rest I thought was good. My idea isn't freezable though. :( If only we lived in an Ideal world!

Did I mention that it's raining?