What the Hell?

Woke up to this yesterday morning. Mine is the white car; J's is the red Mustang. Let me back up a bit. We had one of the worst storms we've had here in Texas since I can remember. Flash flooding is no unusual in our city. We have underground parking where we live. Our condo manager parked her three vehicles there on Monday night. Rule of thumb: if her cars are there, our cars are safe. Not.

After a night of vicious lightning, rain and wind, I got up around 6 a.m. to walk the dogs before work. The elevators weren't working. Nothing new after a rainstorm. I had a stupid thought to myself, "I wonder if they're filled with water like on the Titanic." Remember when Rose goes down in the elevator to find Jack and the elevator and stairwells are filling with water?

So I took the dogs around to the side of the complex and went down the outside stair case to the first floor, cut over by the pool and opened a stairwell door which would take me to the lobby and parking garage below so I could then walk up the ramp to street level. (This is very confusing, I know.) Here is what I found when I went down the stairwell.

Reality hit that behind that door were our cars. J's was just paid off in December and I only had six payments left. When I finally made my way outside, I went up to a man who had surveyed the damage and asked him stupidly, "Which side of the garage is in the best shape? I parked in the back." I pointed. He said, "Ha! The entire garage is under about four feet of water."

So we have lost both cars; they still haven't gotten all the water out 36 hrs later. It took less than a minute of a waterfall of runoff from two of Houston's busiest streets to wipe out about 75 cars and one boat, including a brand new BMW and a Porsche. The water is contaminated with sewage and maybe even a snake or two. But we are the lucky ones here. So far seven fatalities have been discovered in our city; two are still missing. Thousands of people have been displaced, many losing their homes forever. And that's just here. Homes are still washing away into the river in the Hill Country.

So while we may have to put off our move for a few more months, we are simply inconvenienced, while others are in serious mourning.

I pray that wherever you are that you and your families are safe and dry.

Namaste,
~b~