[Connie]

The flood here is more devastating than anyone can imagine. What was once a thriving economy with little unemployment now has around 12,000 people homeless and displaced and many people out of work. Some on the outer edges of the flood plain have been allowed to see their homes to find the walls crawling with mold, walls, floors and ceilings buckled. Lots of mud and sewage in the homes and a terrible stink. The boulevards are lined with garbage as they empty their homes of what was left behind and begin to gut them. They have to take them down to the frame. So many will be just walking away from their homes. I saw a friends house today and her beautiful bay window that she just got a year ago is broken out and when the flood was at it’s highest, it was a foot from her ceiling. She is walking away. Her home is paid for, but she took out a $17,000 loan a year ago for new siding, windows and doors. Today the water is still covering her front steps. That is only one friend…I have so many other friends in the same shape as her. These are not just flooded homes…each home has a story…a family…memories. Some have lived in their homes all their lives and are now elderly. This is so gut wrenching, heart breaking. I don’t know what these people will do. Fema is bringing in trailers for temporary housing, but they don’t have much time before winter will be upon us. We already had a housing shortage here before the flood due to an oil boom and so many people moving here. Besides the thousands of homes flooded, there are so many churches, schools, businesses, parks, the zoo, and even the state fair grounds. As of today, they have cancelled the state fair…first time in history. The hospital was even going to close down, but managed to get a water purifying system which looks like a huge mattress in the near by street.

Our water still has to be boiled and as funny as it sounds, we need to conserve water, so we cannot wash cars, water lawn, etc. There are many water main breaks under the flooded water. We can take short showers as long as we have no open sores on our body and must keep mouths shut in the shower.

I’m going to post a picture of the house I lived in for over 20 years and how high the water was on it. I also am going to post a couple of videos. One is of the animal shelter where there are 500 animals being cared for. They need volunteers for cleaning cages and walking dogs, which I haven’t done yet, as it’s on the other side of town. It was taking up to 2-3 hours to get from one side to the other…which normally took about 10 – 15 minutes. My hubby is also having many health problems so taking a trip across town would take half the day and I hate to leave him or the dogs.

Tomorrow I am hoping to bathe the girls. I won’t bathe them in contaminated water, so have to use boiled. They won’t get rinsed as well as usual and will all use the same bath water, but they are in such need of a bath.