Hurricane surfival kit

What a weekend!  While we were safe and snug at home, watching movies and just relaxing, people's lives were changed last weekend.  Tom and I decided to drive up north to get the walls going since this week was going to be nice and warm and sunny.  We also wanted to make sure the foundation was still covered with plastic to keep it moist.  So we set on our journey at around 11 AM Monday morning.  The highways were fine and we were making great, normal time, until we started getting a little hungry and in need of gas.  Our usual stop is Greenfield.  Gas is cheap, and there are several restaurants and a grocery store.  So we get off the highway, and come to a stop.  The roundabout was completely blocked.  Traffic up the wazoo (and no I don't know for sure what a wazoo is but I think it is a musical instrument).  Tom and I thought construction.  After spending half an hour trying to get to the gas station and then getting back on the highway, we realized that the south-bound entrance was closed off.  Getting back on the highway, there was traffic going south for at least ten miles, being diverted through Greenfield onto Rt5 south.  Hmmmm, what was going on?  Of course not watching the news, we had no idea what lay ahead.  We stopped in Brattleborro to try to use the library computer and found it closed.  But at least we got our food.  Subway for all.  Yum.  As we started further north we kept getting glimpses of the CT river.  It was churning and muddy and high.  Getting off our usual exit we decided to take a detour and watch the falls at Bellow Falls.  Usually the 100 ft drop only has a trickle going through.  We got to "downtown" and found one of the bridges closed.  Walking up to it we saw why.  The usual trickle was now a gushing, churning roaring river with waves as tall as a single story home.  The bridge was still standing but one could see that the supports were compromised.  It was quite a site!

Driving on to finally reach our destination, Tom decided to take our normal short cut, even though I was sure the road was blocked by water.  On the meadows everywhere we saw the destruction the mud and water had left.  Muddy plants, grass and trees.  My brother-in law had mentioned that Vt had lost a lot of the old covered bridges and our short cut happened to take us over a covered bridge.  It was my nemesis because to cross it you had to stay on these narrow slots and I really had to pray a lot to cross the bridge.  But I was getting much better about it.   As we approached, cars were parked along the side, people walking toward the bridge and talking with each other.  Well, I am sad to say the covered bridge was washed away by the pounding of trees against it.  It was washed down the stream.  As we stood along what used to be the road to the bridge another family approached and lamented about the loss of such a historical landmark.  They told us that the bridge was washed down stream and that they were going to look at it.  The railroad tracks on which to reach the site were safe since they were washed away upstream.  We got talking and it turns out that they live up the road from us and, wait for it...... they are home schoolers and Christians.  We had a great time, the kids got to know each other.  The boy is a year older than Logan and the girl is quite a bit younger than Tasha but that didn't matter.  They got along just fine and we exchanged phone numbers and got to know each other a little bit.  Praise the Lord, since one of my prayer was for Logan to find a friend.  The seemed to have hit it off well.

We continued driving along and found the area where the soil was completely washed out from under the railroad tracks.  There will not be any train service any time soon.  Getting to the property I was getting a little nervous, and I shouldn't have because God is always present and with us in these times, and found nothing had been moved, destroyed or touched.  The ROW is in pretty bad shape but it was like that before.  I have to think about the kind of summer VT has had.  It has been wet and cool and the ground is saturated.  There was a very small window for us to get the foundation in and we did, with God's provisions and guidance.  I was beginning to think we would never get the foundation in because the cement trucks would have gotten stuck and that would have been pretty bad.  But staying in prayer about it, God knew the timing and it was perfect.

We did not start on the walls yet.  There is still a little bit of a thinking process involved for Tom and research as to how to do this best and cheapest.  We were able to hang out with the youth and Ruthanne and Roger, wonderful couple who invited us into their home and life.  The stories that were shared were amazing.  Some of the youth were not with us because they could not get out of their house.  The bridge connecting them to the road was washed out.  Another young man had to hike down the mountain since their road has become a river.  People in Grafton and other towns are stranded and can't get out.  One of the young men stated it correctly.  "We didn't have anything really bad happen to us.  Others have it worse."  I love the resolve of the people we are meeting.  They are just going to fix it.  They aren't really waiting for help, although the National Guard and the Red Cross is helping in the devastated areas.  Everyone is out helping their neighbor.  People have lost houses down the stream.  I hope you pray for people who in some case have lost every earthly possession.  Springfield itself was not hit much.  Their dam was so low that it protected them from the flooding, but at this point it is at 79 ft, they have lowered it one foot in the last 24 hours.  The flooding at the dam is quite incredible.

As I was looking at the destruction of the roads, we drove on one which had been half way washed away, I can't help but be awed by God's power.  And this was just one day of water and rain.  I can imagine what 40 days must have done to the surface of the earth.  I certainly can see that Noah's flood was destructive.  Water has awesome power.

I remember being at sea as a little girl during a huge storm.  It was petrifying!  I hope and pray for the people up here.  There is a lot of rebuilding to be done.