Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Day 1

It's only Day 1, and I still can't believe we're at it again.

Sandbagging today was interesting. The first day seems to be the most rough - no one has the groove down yet, and the new students are lost and unfocused. I'm just thankful that so many people remember our awesome techniques from last year and are ready to start right where we left off!

Today, I sandbagged with an awesome ten year old kid named Blake. We were working on his house, and it was incredible to see him lifting thirty-pound sandbags for four hours. He kept saying he just wanted to make sure his mom wouldn't lose her home. And I kept thinking, "It's your home too, pal."

Things are going well so far. The river is up to twenty-eight feet, and it's worrying that it is rising faster than we can sandbag. Oh well, we do what we can, right?

Tomorrow is sandwich-making day! Hurrah.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Here we go again!

Alright! My sandbagging/volunteering duties begin tomorrow.

The flood prediction is that the river will crest at 38 feet on Saturday. That is ridiculously high, but it's a breeze compared to some in the past. Here are the recent record levels:

2009: 40.7 feet
2006: 37.18 feet
2001: 36.70 feet
1997: 39.55 feet

The good news is that we're looking to end up right in the middle of these past record flood levels. The crest is predicted to be lower than 2009 and 1997 - the two greatest floods in history.

Let's do this!