Record High Water along the Missouri

Much to our amazement the high water in our neighborhood of greater Omaha is not something that happens every year. We were surprised to hear that it hadn’t flooded like this since the 1950’s. (photo above) We knew they had closed our Mormon Bridge just up the street. I sent you pictures of the exit ramp under water three weeks ago. Shortly after that they closed not only the bridge but Highway 29, the bridge leads to.

I wasn’t paying much attention to the news with my attentions on Fred who had successful surgery to stop fluid build-up on his left lung--called chronic inflammation--no known cause--but it kept him out of action these last three weeks. We are on the bluffs and well protected. I knew that we had been warned to get water, Elder Watson, (my brother John) had gotten flashlights for all the sisters in case we lose power, and so little by little we seemed to be making preparations. Besides it was cresting June 17, wasn’t it? Then it would all go away. Well not exactly.

The other day John said a fellow was on the overpass next to his house (just above the Trail Center) looking through binoculars. John stopped and asked what he was looking at. “That is my house out there—you can just see the roof!” John was shocked. How had we missed this? So I took a picture of what he was looking at. That blue lake you see out there—was green farmland in May and the white spots in the front are the roofs of farm houses and barns! Iowa is under water in many places near us. Google Iowa flooding. It is heartbreaking.

We have missionaries out filling sand bags to help hold the levees in Council Bluffs. It is just a flat plain from the river east, so if the levees that were built to hold two or three days of flooding water don’t hold, they are in trouble. Yesterday I drove missionaries to the ward house in Council Bluffs. They were going out to see the members with a message. While driving through Council Bluffs I saw two sights that put all this in perspective—saying it all.

First was this woman moving her lawn—you can see the levee at the end of her block. She wasn’t born when the last huge flood hit in the 1950’s, so she just hopes that levee will hold and flood waters will move on. Even though she is worried, she has hope she can enjoy her home and her nicely mowed lawn. She did say she wasn’t using her weed eater!

This homeowner seems to feel the situation is hopeless and that his home can’t be saved and is getting out. The PODS and Storage business has been brisk. Both of these people are weighing the odds of whether they will be under several feet of water by this time next week and will have nothing to go home to.

But Council Bluffs Stake President, Dave Edwards wants his members to not only have hope but assurance they will be taken care of with his inspired Council Bluffs Stake Evacuation Plan. That is the message Elders Kirkham and Mortimer and Sisters Bonelli and Myers are taking out. The stake is not providing PODS or lawnmowers for everyone, but they are making sure everyone will be accounted for.

President Edwards has arranged for every member whose home is threatened to be assigned to another stake member whose home is not in danger, so everyone will have a safe place to be should the flood waters breach the levees in Council Bluffs. Knowing that flood water could well be there until August, this is a plan of true charity. It reminds me of Brigham Young sending the brethren back to rescue the last refugees driven at gun point from Nauvoo who were languishing in the Poor Camps along the Mississippi in the late summer of 1846. He reminded them of the special covenant they had made in the Nauvoo temple that they would see that everyone would have a way to go west. The true charity of members is once again tested. Everyone will be accounted for. I am so impressed at the willingness of everyone to help one another. It makes me proud to belong to the Church!

One of the measurements for me to see the height of the flood waters is along the riverfront in downtown Omaha. In early June John and Barbara took us on a drive along the beautiful riverways—you saw the pictures in the last blog. The famous monument to workers was one of the pictures. The top picture in this blog shows the same monument in the left hand corner (sorry so small-- it was as close as I could get) with all but the tallest man completely under water!

Keep Iowa in your prayers. We need them!

But floods are not the only thing here. We have baseball!! It is the World Series of College Baseball and to coincide there is also the Battle of Omaha Baseball Tournament for boys 11-19. As a result we have had dozens of baseball players come to the Trail Center. But the prize story is the Aces of Draper Utah.

They played a team from Mississippi for the championship. They had to play them twice because they lost the first time. After their first game the Mississippi Mustangs Coach called everyone to the mound and congratulated them and gave them a pep talk and then a Mustang gave a prayer!! Was that unexpected!!

When the Aces came to the Trail Center one of the boys said he thought that if the Mustangs had enough courage to pray they should have enough courage to give them each a copy of the Book of Mormon, so cute Sister Myers (photo above) happened to be their guide and she found 15 copies for them. Each boy wrote his testimony in a copy and after the game, even though they lost, they didn’t seem to mind because they were so excited to give their copies of the Book of Mormon to the Mustangs. They all went out to the mound again at the end and gave their gifts and in return the Mustangs gave them scripture bracelets and they had prayer. I am sure these boys were praying their missionary effort would be successful. So even 11 year old baseball players can be missionaries!