38 weeks pregnant and the flood of a lifetime

As most people around the country, and possibly even the world, have heard by now...a lot of Colorado is under water.  It all began last Monday when we finally had a nice shift in the weather pattern.  We had been baking in unseasonably warm heat for this late summer/early autumn time period, and so we all welcomed the cool down and the onset of some rain.  Especially me, since my little oven has been keeping me plenty warm without the weather outside making it worse.

It rained Monday, just under an inch in most places, but just over 1.5 inches near our house.  Then it rained Tuesday about half an inch here yet over 1.5 inches in Boulder, and it was still raining on Wednesday when I left work to drive home through a pretty heavy rain.  That was the beginning of the heavy 8+ inches of rain that Boulder received on Wednesday into Thursday (while we just got a mere 2.5 inches).  Then Boulder got another 4+ inches on Thursday (we got just under an inch).  Finally by Friday, the rain subsided, allowing rescue and recovery efforts to really begin.  For the whole week of Monday-Friday, Boulder got over 14.5 inches of rain...while we got close to 5 inches in that time period.  I think our rain total is pretty impressive as it is given our typically dry climate here, but of course the Boulder totals are off the charts (and truly record-breaking).  Some analyses are showing that the shear amount of rainfall would be equivalent to a 1000-year flood (having a 1 in 1000 chance of happening in any one given year).  The estimates on the actual flooding that has occurred as a result vary, with the local authorities in my town claiming it a 500-year flood.  Either way, it's definitely the flood of a lifetime for me, or at least I sure hope so.

From this deluge of rain, that was amazingly widespread across most all of the northern half of the Colorado Front Range, came flash floods in every canyon of the northern foothills.  These flash floods transported record amounts of water downstream, which then flooded out areas surrounding their creek and river beds downstream, especially in places downstream of mergers of these creeks/rivers.   The flooding continues to move east across the plains along the South Platte River, which is the resulting river for most of these canyons (let me tell you I've learned a lot about the creek and river connections in our area from this!), and with continued rains today (not sure how many more inches we've received, but it was a steady moderate-to-heavy rain for at least 5-6 hours today for us), it is bound to continue a bit longer.

The good news for us is that we have not been affected directly.  Our neighborhood is far enough (by a few miles or so) from the flooding that we have not been evacuated and our basement has remained dry.  The primary way that we've been affected is by being cut off from being able to go anywhere, most notably to the hospital I'm supposed to delivery baby in.  While this past Wednesday I had been having some cramping/contractions most of the day, I was very happy to wake up in the middle of the night to find they had subsided.  I had gone to bed worrying that we'd be woken up by me going into labor amidst the numerous flash flood warnings that were being issued overnight. (And driving at night during flash flooding is very dangerous!)  I'm happy to say that didn't happen.  Which is good, because just south of that hospital a road washed away leaving 3 cars in the rushing water, whose drivers had to be dramatically rescued (all were safely rescued though!), and the main roads that we would need to take were soon closed given floodwaters rushing over the roads at the locations where the creeks/rivers crossed them.   We suddenly found ourselves living nearly on an island; surrounded by water (or water flooded roads) on nearly all sides of us.  There was not an obvious way to get to the hospital if we tried.    (Note: the local hospital was within our reach, but it's not the hospital that my new insurance covers my medical services for unless it's an emergency, which may as well have been the case if I did go into labor and there was no way to get to the other hospital.)

So in the end this whole event has resulted in several days of being "stuck" at home, with no where to go.  Work has been closed, schools have been closed, and most businesses have been closed.  Besides being somewhat isolated to home, the only other potential issue we've faced is the threat of the safety of our drinking water.  The water district that services homes near us had a boil water advisory and disruptions in service Friday, but so far ours keeps saying we're okay.  They are requesting everyone limit usage to make sure that the safe water resources are not overly used and to limit the wastewater drainage.  Some areas in the flooding have lost power, but we've luckily kept ours.  I will also mention that I have no photos to share with this post, because I've avoided the temptation to be a looky-loo and have been heeding the advice of the authorities to stay away from the flooded areas.   The local news and YouTube have plenty to show off what this destruction looks like (and I've shared a few of them on Facebook).

Nonetheless, I've also found myself going through a range of emotions (hello, I am pregnant after all too!), and wishing that there was some way I could help.  One of the evacuation centers that they've been taking people from the completely isolated and flooded out town of Lyons is to a church near by.  I told John I wanted to go help volunteer there, but he told me my job was to rest and make sure baby didn't come during this fiasco.  He is right, but I feel so guilty spending comfortable time in the luxury of my own home knowing people just down the street are in sorrow.  This is just TOO close to home.

It appears I will probably be staying home, and thus working from home, for a few more days too.  Even though my employer plans to open tomorrow, the authorities still are asking for limited travel into and around Boulder.  Many of the schools in Boulder have flooded so badly it is hard to know when they will open again.  And there are still so many people unaccounted for, they are planning a large scale air rescue and evacuation effort tomorrow once the clouds (and rain) part and this weather system that has plagued our region for the past week is finally set to clear out.

So, thanks to baby for staying put for the time being...come the next few days as roads open and the weather dries things out I will be right back on track with being ready for (and wanting) her arrival any day.  I'm still amazed that I've made it this far (i.e. 38 weeks) given what happened with my first pregnancy, but I'm also still hoping that I will go a bit early so I don't have too big of a baby that causes delivery complications.  But whatever happens, I will definitely never forget this surreal, tragic, and record-breaking event that happened so close to when this little baby was due to be born.