I Am A Flood Victim

I never wanted riverfront property!

We have owned our little piece of property for over 30 years.  We never thought we'd ever have to say, "I am a flood victim."  However, the unthinkable happened and flood waters invaded our little home.

I realized the other day that I had not blogged since right before we had to abandon our home at 2 in the morning on a Monday. We do have a place to stay due to the kind mercies of my aunt.

I shared an update with some friends regarding our situation, and since I have limited internet access at the present time, I thought I would just post the same information for any readers I might still have left.

I will blog again.

Life is change.  When I can get back to blogging regularly, I expect that my blogging may take a different direction.  One thing for sure, you never know what is around the corner! 

Thank you to the readers who have contacted me and have prayed for me that our family was safe!

And now, my update:

As you may know, there is extensive flooding around the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  In my part of the country, the flood was disastrous. The county I live in sustained heavy damages. My house ended up having 12 inches of water in it instead of just the 6 inches we had originally thought. We must be terrible estimators! When we got back in and measured the line where the water was, it was 12 inches.



We have packed up everything and moved out all our furniture, storing it in our Pastor's 2-car garage and my aunt's basement. Jim has now ripped up all the carpeting and one subfloor (in our bedroom) will have to be replaced. Next week, a contractor friend of ours will rip out about 2 feet of drywall all around the house. Then bleach water will have to be sprayed in there, then it will have to dry out several days. Also next week, another friend has volunteered to pull out our cabinets so that the drywall behind them can get the same treatment. Then he will clean up the cabinets and put them back. We will have to have a new countertop, since the old one will have to be taken apart in order to get the cabinets out.


Next, new drywall will have to be added to the bottom of all walls. In order to not have to patch and paint the drywall, we are going to put up white pre-painted beadboard (or wainscoting) over it. We will do some repainting in the bedrooms (and possibly the kitchen) and install white chair rail all around the beadboard.


After that, carpet can be put down in the living room and bedrooms, and laminate in the kitchen. I haven't made up my mind about the bathroom. Wish I had a relative that could do ceramic tile in there!


We have promises of donated labor, but not sure how all that will work out. We may have to hire someone, but finding someone who has time may be a challenge. However, I'm positive God will provide. He will walk each step of the way with us. If all goes as planned, our house will look much nicer inside than before the flood. We really needed new carpet anyway, we just did not want to be forced into it! As for the outside of the house ... well that needed a lot of help before the flood anyhow ... somehow something always happens to keep us from fixing that. Maybe God's way of keeping us humble, LOL.


In the midst of all this disaster, somehow both Elissa and I developed poison ivy while filling sandbags and had to go to the doctors. Mine was on my ankle, and the day we went into our house and stood in flood water for 2 hours to rescue our belongings really made it worse. You should see my legs now! No, actually you would not want to. I have been to the doctor twice and am now on stronger meds, but it is taking a long time to get better. This is curtailing my cleanup activity immensely!

Since we are basically homeless right now, we have been staying at my aunt's house. Bless her heart, she called the day we were flooded saying if we were welcome to stay with her if we needed to. I didn't take her seriously because I was so sure that all our sandbagging efforts would pay off! Then at 2 in the morning the flood waters started coming up to the door and we had to call her and ask if we could come then. I bet she never thought we would have to end up staying with her this long ... She seems to be fine with us staying but I feel awful about it ...



Now for family update:  Janae and Daniel will be home from Oklahoma and we are all meeting at Lambert's in Sikeston for dinner! I'm so excited to see them. Malia is coming too! Then tomorrow will be Malia's graduation. I'm hoping and praying that everyone will have a wonderful time during these two events.


Well, that's been Jerri's world for the month of May! Please keep us in your prayers, and I want you to know that I love all of you and pray for you as well.