No-Name Flood

That's right... unlike Agnes in 1972, and Ivan a couple years ago, the PA Flood of 2006 doesn't have a name. Going by river levels, it's the third-worst on record. But it wasn't caused by any named storm, therefore has no title to attach to it.

I think I'm going to call it the Reality Check Flood of 06. In my eyes, that's exactly what it was. Anyone who thinks they're inconvenienced because the closest store is out of your favorite brand of soda, try dealing with having no WATER for several days. Parts of Bloomsburg had the water shut off due to a main break during the flood; people have had to get their drinking water from container trucks. There's a food distribution tent set up just off Main Street. The street is lined with industrial-sized dumpsters now full of belongings, furniture, and debris people are hauling out of their soggy homes. There are more piles of stuff in yards. Cars are sitting with their doors open as owners hope their vehicles will dry out and be salvageable. Windows are open, fans are on, cleanup has begun. It's incredibly sad and shocking.

In all, it's mostly material objects that can be replaced or done without. But it's also homes ruined, lives disrupted, more than a minor inconvenience when people either can't get to work or have to call off or even work around their job hours so they can rip out the drywall and cart waterlogged items outside and take photos for insurance claims and make sure their kids aren't playing in contaminated runoff and bleach everything to stave off mold and feed their families from outdoor grills or Salvation Army donations and try to somehow keep on keeping on.

Granted, our flood was nowhere near the magnitude of Katrina. I hope there never is another on that scale. But it's devastating all the same, especially when it hits home and involves people I know. Therefore, Reality Check '06. The wake-up call to tell us that disaster can happen to anyone, anywhere, even in our own backyards; a lesson for those who weren't around for the other big floods and a reminder to those who were.

And to cap it all, we're still getting rain off and on.

Hey God, we're awake now. Can you fix that leak in the sky, please? Thanks!