The Great Flood!

When Katie and I signed up to volunteer at the Tanner Christian Mission we did not realize that we would be actually experiencing popular stories from the Bible. The last week has definitely been the most exciting and memorable.


The weather started to get weird Wednesday afternoon around lunch time. Wednesday was the day that all the volunteers meet at Casa Hannah for Katie's goodbye lunch. This meant I had to walk 10 minutes through what was affectionately labeled "raining buckets" and "hail stones the size of marbles," by another volunteer. At one point we had to stop and take cover because the hail and rivers on the streets we so strong we were worried about our safety. The cars and trucks driving by that showered us with a tidal wave of mud and water. All we could do was laugh and keep trudging on.


After a quick change into dry clothes we all sat down at Casa Hannah for a masa (lunch) favorite, pizza. Just as we got started the phone rang. One of the other houses, Casa Elizabetha, was taking on water. There had been so much rain that the ground was saturated and water was pouring into the basement. At that point it was ankle deep. As we arrived in one of the volunteer`s rental car we noticed that one of the house moms parked on a hill far from the house (foreshadowing). Not thinking two much of this, the three of us drove up to the house and began bailing water. We were making some head way when one of the girls started screaming, "too much water, too much water, no good." We thought she was just getting frustrated because all the stuff in the basement was getting wet. Then we realized that she was pointing out to the front yard. I should mention that Casa Elizabetha sits in a valley. The small stream that normally lies about 200 yard away from the house was now a huge wave heading toward the house. This wave about two feet deep and 200 yards wide quickly increased in volume to four feet deep. Realizing why the house mother`s car was parked down the road, we ran to see the rental car actually floating away. We were only able to save it by chaining it to a concrete pillar. Which took four of us to hold in in place in the four foot rushing flood river. By this time the water level had reached the stairs of the house. Our losing battle of bailing the water out of the basement was abandoned and the decision was made to evacuate the five girls still in the house. On our way out we noticed hey piles and huts floating down the river. Our evacuation route was through a corn field with knee deep mud. As you can image it was a very scary time for the girls.

When all we returned to the house the next morning for clean up, we found one foot thick mud everywhere and four feet of water in the basement. The rental car was actually sitting on top of the neighbor`s dog house. He made a point to stop and blame us for stealing his dog house. When we left Nicoresti two days later the car was still on the dog house, mud covered most of the property, and the girls were still cleaning all the carpets and the lower floors of the house.

The flood made national news and five people died while there are still others missing. The town of Nicoresti and Tecuci will be affected by this for months.