Jim

Thursday evening, I was off to my follow-up doctor’s appointment. It was raining, but who’s afraid of a little rain? And after all, the van is parked right in front of our front door.

I was, however, pretty soaked by the time I got into the van, and by the time I opened our gate (so I could move the van out onto the street), I had stepped in water deep enough to soak my shoes.

Shari suggested I maybe cancel my appointment. As tends to be the case, she was right. However, at the moment of the suggestion, the van was already out, I was trying to close the gate as quickly as possible, we were both getting soaked, and it was one of those split-second yes/no decisions. So, off I went.

As you can see, I cheated with the picture above – this was flooding on Friday evening, not Thursday evening. Flooding happens quite regularly around here, but nothing like Thursday. I was driving through lakes and rivers the whole time.

After many adventures, I was only 500 metres from the clinic, but then I remembered I was about to drive down a street rather notorious for flooding, and Thursday was no exception. With the rain still coming down in torrents, I came to my senses and began backing up, to see if by any chance I could make it home.

Backing up wasn’t so easy at that level of visibility. But then I realized that they were closing the road behind me – that is, where I needed to go. But the gentleman putting up the rope across the road saw that I was just leaving, and when I explained that I was leaving, he was kind enough to let me go.

The fun wasn’t over yet. And it wasn’t my imagination that this was unusual. Our area was apparently the hardest hit in the flooding. Firefighters were literally rescuing people by boat, where there used to be streets.

So there was no stopping if I wanted to get home (and no time for pictures!) – I drove through rivers and lakes, winding around to try to find the highest ground (or at least the least flooded ground). Every manhole I passed was now a little fountain 1-2 feet high of sewage water pouring into the street. (Genesis 7:11 – “the fountains of the great deep split open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” At least that water was clean!)

Finally with a busted umbrella and a jacket that could have been wrung out, I arrived home with some flood debris stuck on the bottom of the van. Our street was pretty much as it had been – which I’m thankful for. Our house was fine.

Not to say everything was fine – we did have some loss from the flooding, but I won’t get into that here. The short story – we’re fine, the house is fine, and I was glad to be home.

Many other people had worse problems. With a local sewage ditch overflowing, appliances and electronics were destroyed as water swept through houses.

Here’s an article – I ran it through Google Translate for you, but it gives you an idea and shows a picture taken very close to where we live, where I often do business: Flood in Ixtapaluca

So my appointment was cancelled (they messaged me to ask why I wasn’t there, so I explained – it simply wasn’t possible!). I rescheduled for the next day, attempting to avoid the rain, which tends to come later in the day. There’ are ‘s a tropical storm off the coast which is giving us dismal weather for a few days – “Delila“. But the rain started again before I left. As you can see in the picture above, there was still flooding.

But! Not nearly as bad as Thursday night. So lots of splashing, but no closed roads.

So – I saw my doctor a day late. And – yikes! Delila is getting stronger still, although it’s slowly moving away from us. Not much sun is predicted for the next 4 days. Those clouds are dark up there. Here we go again! Can I stay home tonight?