Water, water everywhere

As a new Relief Society president for only a few weeks (RS is an organization for the women of our church--I'm the president for the women in our congregation) I've been mostly dealing with flood. There have been evacuations, teams sent out to find members who haven't been to church in a while, work teams, donations and a big potluck for workers. The task that proved to be the most difficult was finding assignments for our work crews to do. Since they came only on weekends, we had to be sure that there would be work for them at an address, that there would be an owner willing to sign a release and to stay on the premises. Obviously, I didn't do all this myself. But it was a huge group effort and I had my part to do.

That's why I've been silent for a while.

And this blog hasn't featured photos for a long time because a) it rains every time I think of it and b) we were asked by our church leaders not to take photos of the work sites in deference to the tender feelings of others.

We had even more flooding this week. It's been enormous. The damage has been tremendous and the heartbreak incalculable.

I'm going away, far, far, away tomorrow. It will be a welcome break. Sadly, Michael can't go with me but I get to meet not one but two new grandchildren in Texas and Utah respectively and attend the baptism of my oldest grandson.

It's good knowing that the last of the work crews finished last weekend and that my counselors are more than able to handle things in my absence. And this Sunday is our church's World Conference which means no local meetings but satellite and internet broadcasts.

Life can be very unexpected. I didn't expect to ever be a Relief Society president and to take over the job in such adverse circumstances has been a real surprise. The bigger surprise is that if you asked me, I would tell you I like the job and find great satisfaction in it.

Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood

We are okay. But our valley is not. The flooding is insane here. We live on a mountain and our house is doing great. We have many friends who have had to evacuate. Our church family has tried to house those who needed a place to stay.

I must say that it is a bit much to have an earthquake, hurricane and now flood in short order. I'm trying very hard not to believe it's some kind of apocalyptic sign.

Folks here will have a lot of cleaning up to do. We all hope that the levees will hold and that the towns of Forty Fort, Kingston and most of Wilkes-Barre will be spared. But Nanticoke, Nescopeck, Pittston and many other places are not protected by that high levee put up after Hurricane Agnes. They will just have to deal with the unimaginable amount of water pouring down their streets right now.

We are very grateful that we have not suffered damage from the hurricane or the flood. The earthquake was an itsy bitsy tremor in our area and really didn't damage anything here. But still.

It really makes you see the value of preparedness, having a 72-hour kit ready and being able to function without power, water or natural gas.

Here's hoping this is the last of the disasters for 2011.