The rains came down and the floods came up...

Wherever you are in the world, the people here in the Mid-South could really use your thoughts and prayers. We have weathered seemingly endless days upon days of rain and storms, and even though now the rain has ceased, the general consensus is that we haven't seen the worst of it yet. I hear the buzz words "levee", "crest", "evacuation plan" and "river" all day long while working in the community and in local homes. We don't know exactly what will happen, but I'm hoping it's not as bad as some people fear.

As a result of the flooding, schools in the area were closed and major streets on our side of the bridge and in Memphis closed, including Riverside Drive, the road entering downtown Memphis from Arkansas. Tunica casinos closed. Even a section of I-40 closed down. A mom traveling with twins that I treat was prepared with an SUV stocked with pillows, snacks and drinks to last them the unknown amount of time to make it from Little Rock to West Memphis, typically a 1.5 hour drive. Most commuters' travel time was tripled.

As for me, I wore rain boots every day to work for a week and a half, prepared to trudge through unknown depths of standing water to make it to patients' homes. And in my travels, I perfected the art of the U-turn!

On 2 particular days, the only facility open on my caseload was Hughes school, 30 miles from Marion.

The rain seemed to last an eternity. It was so depressing when this is what you saw every day out the car window.

Looking out into what are normally crop fields on both sides of the highway on the way to Hughes, is now an endless ocean.

The water was just a few feet from the road.

Sean and I were forced to carpool to work for over a week because the entrances to our subdivision were massively flooded.


It was only after the city solicited crews to sandbag and gravel the road that we could even make it out in Sean's truck.

It was quite a production.

The first day we headed home from work, we came to a stop way before our destination.

We worked our way around one block, but still looked ahead to a bumper to bumper line. Just to get home!

Almost an hour later, crossing over where you couldn't see the road was so scary. For several days, we worked by the philosophy "once we're home, we're home!" No quick runs to get supper or...do anything.

Things are returning to normal a bit, but no one knows how long they'll stay. I sure hope everyone stays safe and dry.

XOXO,
Katie

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