The Saturday Night Door Bell

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I heard a wonderful story last night about a man who grew up to do exactly what he wanted to do when he was a little boy. He became a fireman.

Once, when he was in high school, a teacher had ridiculed his dream. The teacher thought he should go to college and do something more “important.” I hope the teacher felt differently when that former-student-turned-fireman pulled him out of a wrecked car and saved his life with CPR.

I appreciate first responders. Ray and I depended on them even more than usual this past weekend.

On Saturday night we rode with some friends to a restaurant a half hour away from home. We had barely gotten our food when I got a call from my mom’s sitter, a homeschool graduate I have long depended on for such outings. Our sitter’s mom was very concerned about the rising water near their home. Their house was flooded in 2010 and officials were predicting that recent rains and planned water releases at the dam upriver from us could cause similar results.

I hurriedly called our daughter to see if she could go stay with my mom. Our sitter called again: 911 had called on our landline to warn of possible major flooding in our area. I called our daughter again to tell her about the 911 call. She told me that our kind son-in-law had gone to our house so that our sitter could head home and join her family in evacuating. Our daughter had stayed at home with the children.

When our friends and we finished dinner, we rode back home in the rain. When we said goodbye to our friends, they invited us to come back and spend the night if the river was too high for us to get home. The rain continued while Ray and I drove to our home. The river was close to the road, but the road was only wet with no standing water at all.

We were home by 8:30 p.m. Though I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish that evening, I plopped on the couch. I was exhausted. I think the intensity of emotion had worn me out. Soon my cell phone rang. It was our daughter, calling to let us know the news from her friend whose husband is a volunteer with the rescue squad. Officials were predicting that the rivers would rise another ten to fifteen feet.

Before she finished telling me the news, our doorbell rang. Standing at the door were two EMTs letting us know that officials were not requiring us to evacuate, but they recommended that we do so. The flooding could be worse than 2010, they told us. It didn’t matter that our house had never been affected by flooding before. It might this time. We should leave.

Ray and I began a flurry of packing, as we wondered where we would go. Would we drive back to Cookeville and stay with friends? Would we go to a shelter? We gathered grocery totes and a couple of suitcases and began throwing in non-perishable foods and juices and a few clothes and toiletries. We woke up my mom, hurried her to the car, and grabbed her medications.

In the end, we decided to go to the home of our daughter. They live on higher ground. We arrived in some of the heaviest rains we had experienced the whole evening.

We awoke on Sunday to some of the prettiest clear skies we had seen in days, but still officials predicted possible flooding. The Corps of Engineers was releasing “historic levels” of water from the dam upriver. We were warned not to be lulled into complacency by the sunshine, but to remain diligent and watchful for rising water.

We all decided to go on to church, hoping that the water wouldn’t rise before we could make it home. Ray and I returned to our house, but we left most of our packed provisions in the car.

Finally at 8:21 p.m. on Sunday evening, we got word that the latest prediction was that the largest river in our area, the Cumberland, would crest four feet below flood stage. Whew! Not long before bed, Ray began bringing in bag after bag of the stuff we had packed the night before.

As I said at the beginning, I appreciate first responders. During our crisis, I wondered how folks will respond if we ever get into a similar situation again. What will they do the next time our helpers go door to door encouraging us to evacuate? Will they believe them? Will they go?

I will believe them. I’m not bitter that they encouraged me to leave when it wasn’t necessary. I am grateful. They were sacrificially doing their job. Praise God that everything turned out better than officials believed it might. And praise God for people who are willing to serve.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind
regard one another as more important than yourselves;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4

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