The following text is the email conversation between the family females on the night of the crazy rainstorm. I’ve inserted commentary of my own which you will find in parentheses. Once again, I decided to do this, because I found it amusing……and...….because I can.
The email about the storm first began when Melanie informed us of seeing a report of bad weather around Corsicana. Here’s how it started.
Melanie:
Just turned on weather channel and they said there was rotation around Corsicana, so I got on facebook and it says a report of a funnel cloud near OAK VALLEY! Shut up it may BLOW AWAY.
Lindsey:
Is someone checking on it?
Melanie:
I guess Bo or Jimmie will tell us if it's gone.
(Bo or Jimmie are good neighbors….not state farm….down the road from Gran’s)
Carrie:
They (the TV people) are going to the weather at each commercial and it's all around there, so who knows. Yes, someone will let us know I am sure (if the house is blown off the map.)
(This is now the blog me with my rendition of a phone call telling us the house is no longer available for habitation….if in fact the house blew away. The following conversation with Bo or Jimmie would go something like this. “DUDES…..your house is GOOOOONNNNNEEEEEEEE!!!!! Since we received no phone call, we are assuming the house is still standing……along with the help of many, many ants.)
Lindsey:
Bill says the storm is gonna be really bad!!! But he said that last night. I'm kinda nervous. (Shockingly enough, the weather man had been wrong the night before which caused Lindsey to be skeptical of listening to Bill on this eve.)
Melanie:
I know they say it could get bad...but it'll be fine I pray.
(Carlie is one nervous Nellie when it comes to storms. Her email came in seemingly frantic.)
Carlie:
This is serious business!!!
(Carlie’s panic immediately spread which caused Lindsey to ask….)
Lindsey:
Should we take cover?!?
(Melanie, trying to keep her daughters calm responded with…)
Melanie:
Be prepared to take cover YES but just keep an eye on channel 8.
(Lydia also tried to reassure.)
Lydia:
Put your shoes by your bed, also candle and matches and don't be scared.
(Olivia however wasn’t watching channel 8, she was watching Rosie the weather dog who takes up residence in the bathroom during bad weather. This is no lie, but a real fact as evidenced by photos I’ve already posted and shant post again.)
Olivia:
Guys, it's cool, Rosie's still in the den.
(In the next email, I announced to all the peeps we had lost power. I remember being annoyed and pist because I knew we were gonna be a long time without lights. Now, picture us in our house, sitting in chairs, in the pitch dark, with some choice words for losing our electricity and then fumbling around looking for any and all primitive lighting accessories. This next statement is riveting…..wait for it.)
Lisa:
We just lost power
(Told you.)
(Mollie then gave Olivia an air high five by telling her she enjoyed the Rosie weather dog comment by Olivia…..but dash it, darkness fell at the Walker house as well.)
Mollie:
Hahahahah Olivia, hilarious! But there went our power.
(Now I’m not sure exactly what went down at this point for Carlie to express the omg with exclaims but it could have been a thunder clash or a mega lightning bolt or the fact that we lost power or she just hadn’t panicked in a bit.)
Carlie:
Omg!!!!!!
(Melanie chimed in about Rosie and then waved it all up in our grill that she in fact was cool and still well lit.) (This is not in reference to alcohol….that’s another kind of lit.)
Melanie:
Haha, Rosie the weather Dog. we Still have Power
(Carrie enjoyed the Rosie comment as well, but if you read it as she wrote it, it would seem that Rosie was actually “going to the bathroom” instead of just going to the bathroom. Again 2 VERY different things here.)
Carrie:
Hahaha that's funny Liv. I was just thinking about Lisa”s blog saying Rosie goes to the bathroom when it's stormy and I am thinking Rosie isn't stupid!!!!
(Emma joined the fray by stating she was in the hall in preparation for taking cover. She and Carlie wouldn’t make good partners during stormy conditions. An accurate picture of the two of them would look something like this…..both of them grabbing each other by the shoulders and screaming at the top of their lungs…..“WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!! NOT. A. GOOD. COMBO.)
Emma:
Me and Liv are sitting in the hall. I'm so nervous
(Olivia wanted it known that she was the moral supporter and not a scaredy cat.)
Olivia:
I'm here for support only. Psh I'm not scared.
(Caitlin, as usual showed her concern for her fellow man by chiming in with….)
Caitlin:
I am ticked that this whole thing has interrupted my Mario kart!
(Olivia made an astute observation about our “lights out” situation.)
Olivia:
It's like we're in the 1800's only with iPhones.
(Olivia quickly sent another email regarding Rosie the weather dog. This many emails from Olivia is quite the phenomenon.)
Olivia:
Rosie's gone into the bathroom but she walked out. She's not feelin this long term.
(Melanie then wondered if Lindsey was up or down.)
Melanie:
Lindsey status report, are you sleeping thru this
(At this point, Carlie became overwhelmed at the sight of hail at her abode as she stated the obvious to the rest of us.)
Carlie:
HAIL!!!!
(This email from Lindsey came in order to answer Melanie’s question, after the email from Carlie regarding the hail…..you HAVE to keep up people!! Lindsey sent pics of her dogs taking cover.)
Lindsey:
Nooooooo I'm soooooooooo tired but scared!!!!! We’re in the bathroom. Hail is CRAZY!
Ellie looking as if she's at attention.
Grace, looking depressed.
(We finally made the decision to go to the hall/bathroom for shelter and then told everyone about the move.)
Lisa:
We are in the hall. All of us and the dogs
(Emma decided to freak.)
Emma:
I'm so stressed out guys!! My tummy hurts
(Carlie is feeling the depths of Emma’s despair.)
Carlie:
We're in the kitchen/den....not taking shelter yet.
Emma, I was having a full on panic attack earlier.
(Then Lydia weighed in with some information which is unclear to me. Either they have hail as well as the rest of us, OR they all went into the bathroom for shelter. I’m not sure which is correct. She then gave us some information to lighten the mood even though some might say it was a tad too much.)
Lydia:
Us also. And the church alarm went off and dale had to go up there but he is back and all is well. Also if something happens tonight I want u all to know I have on clean underwear. Love you all
(Back at our house, Emma was not in full panic but was very very nervous when the following conversation was had between Olivia and her father. Caitlin decided to take the opportunity to make a joke. Emma thought it not funny at all.) The ME in the convo is Olivia….the Dad is….well….Dad.
Olivia:
Me: I could really use a mucinex (I went on about how I'm getting over my cold, not important)
Dad: do you want me to get you one?
Me: nah I'll wait til later.
Caitlin: if there is a later...
Mom, Owen, Caitlin, dad, and I laugh pretty hard.
Dad: you made me lose a life! (he was playing a game on his phone)
Caitlin: said something about the storm and our real lives.
Emma did not appreciate any of this. She says her weather class knowledge is kicking in and earlier in the year she was all like “whatever” but now she wants to go back and listen to the lectures again. I think around the 3rd lecture she'd be bored of it. Emma is now in worse shape than Rosie is.
(Hail apparently arrived at the Herrock house.)
Lisa:
We have hail too
(See?)
(It might seem that Lydia went outside to count their hail pieces…..I don’t think she did.)
Lydia:
We got 10 pieces of hail
(Because I can’t pass up a good joke, I decided to congratulate Lydia on the comment about the wearing of clean underwear and tell everyone we left the bathroom 7 seconds after we entered. Also, I was obviously very worried about sleeping….or rather not sleeping without AC. )
Lisa:
Ha ha ha Lydia that's pretty funny and we are out of the b room. Poor Ellie and grace. Its barely raining here. (Crazy rain had yet to begin falling.) I'm worried about sleeping hot.
(Becky finally acted like she cared a pinch before she went and tucked her little self into her comfy and cool bed. The u/n is of course in reference to Lydia’s comment about clean undies.)
Becky:
good to know about the u/w - hang tight all. Love and hugs
yall should be rollin' tape in the hallway - take care all
(After I brought to Olivia’s attention that our Dr Peppers were trying to be frozen in a freezer with no electricity, she found herself in a state of grrrrrrrrr.)
Olivia:
Grrrrrrrr at this rate if the lights stay off, I'm only going to have a really cold dp instead of a frozen one!
(Melanie tried to comfort Carlie and Emma from afar.)
Melanie:
We got a little hail. Poor Carlie. You just can't get over your nervousness about storms. When you were little and would come get in our bed, I was so glad that you would fine there with us. I always thought that must be the greatest feeling for you. Little did you know there wasn't much we could've done but you did feel safe. Emma a little knowledge is a scary thing
(Whitney decided to join the convo for a sec and tease us with a fake invite for pancakes as well as make fun of a visiting yankee.)
Whitney:
Guys. It's all good. Anyone who wants pancakes...come on over, but get Carlie to cook em cause I'm going to sleep. Also, we have a male guest visiting at our house tonight. He's one of courtney’s classmates and he’s from up north and they don't have tornados up there...he’s panicked and didn't want to be alone. Ha. Funny.
(Melanie then decided to ratchet up the caution quotient by being the bearer of more bad news.)
Melanie:
It's NOT OVER there's more around Arcadia and coming our way. In Jesus name it'll be fine but we have to stay ALERT !!!!!!
(Then Carrie was all like, “Please shut up about your endangered lives, I need some input on the taping of the royal wedding.”)
Carrie:
Well do stay alert but tell me what channel are yal going to tape the weddin on??
(Once again, Melanie was all braggy about having electricity and stated the following.)
Melanie:
I'm taping as many as possible. You've got what 6? I'm doing the BBC, abc maybe tlc and E Haven't fully decided
(Then it was Carrie’s turn to brag.)
Carrie:
I can tape up to 4 I have BBC and E so far
(The two of them continued to talk about the wedding for a few and then Carrie tried to show a bit of concern again.)
Melanie:
Abc cause Barbara Walters was dianas "friend" so they say
Carrie:
I may have done that one too I will check. So is it quiet now? do yal have power back?
Melanie:
No we r still in it and the others are in bed or conserving phone power since they have no power
(Even though the crazy rain never got announced, it had begun and I was running low on my battery on the only device I had connecting us to the outside world.)
Lisa:
Our street is flooded and the water is to our sidewalk. We don't need more rain (thank you Captain Obvious). And we have no power and probably won't have any for awhile. I'm at 45% battery. I'm out.
(Melanie related some weather news and the hope that we wouldn’t be needing rowboats and oars, also an invite to those of us sleeping hot.)
Melanie:
There's another line coming our way but could stay south of us hopefully. There's a tree down on 2nd and roselawn (we drove by it the next day and found the tree had indeed kicked the crap out of a house. Ding ding ding...first and only round of the fight definitely went to the tree.) Stubbs at 6th is flooded. A subdivision in West Monroe behind wal mart is flooded. Lisa ya'll can come over here, got 2 beds and couches
(Lindsey, not yet asleep, offered beds and Bill’s concern that weather related things were still dicey. Any reference people made about still having power I considered a slap in my face.)
Lindsey:
I have power (slap) and open beds because no one is sleeping! Bill just woke me up because of wind. He wanted us both in the b room. Mom is dad awake? That's my level of seriousness.
(Randy was unconcerned for his eternal soul and went to bed. Austin may have been in a rowboat by now since his neighborhood was surrounded by wind and water and danger.)
Melanie:
Ha ha no he went to bed about 12. Louisville Ave. is flooded. Austin is surrounded by all of it.
(Carrie, overcome with concern for all of us, told us via email she was so worried that she fell asleep! Offensive!)
Carrie:
Well I have had a freakin nap and can't go back to sleep. Pray this passes by yal soon
(Melanie, with her fancy electricity and full battery cell phone was trying to keep people informed of how close the water was to some of us. Umm hello, I’m cornered by Forsythe and Oliver, so my house is in deep poo.)
Melanie:
We've got some flooding going on. They showed forsythe at Oliver and it's totally flooded. Facebook says 28,000 without power. (Yep I know about 10 people, personal like, that were sitting in the dark.)
(Because Owen’s trying to keep his Gold card status, and because I could easily be a stage mother if I allowed myself, I was concerned about school being open for the boy. My battery was getting dangerously low and caused me to wonder about getting in my car, plugging my phone in and running it in the carport in order to increase the life of my phone. After weighing gas prices against cell phone bat, I opted out.)
Lisa:
Anything about schools being closed. We have no power and therefore no alarms. My bat is at 28%
(The News Star, a cracker jack operation, had no info on schools which meant we had to get up at 6:30 in order to get Owen to school in case in wasn’t closed.)
Melanie:
No school announcements yet, but I'm thinking it's possible because of water, but don't know
(Then, Whitney chimed in with a game changer……but only for her.)
Whitney:
I'M AWAKE AS WELL. AND OTIS HAS SEVERE GAS.
(The Walkers as well as my family were sweating 2 things. Literal sweat due to being hot, as well as the rain coming down so heavily and fast that water would soon be entering our humble homes. But, thank God the rain slacked up long enough for the flood waters to begin receding. Hallelujah!!)
Lydia:
No power for us and we were a hair’s breadth from flooding but the water seems to be receding.
(Apparently Mollie was another sleeper who if not awakened by her parents, may have last been seen floating on her mattress out the carport door and down the street. In my book, people who slept through the crisis don’t just automatically get to wake up and be part of the hanger on’ers. Marlie the pup was unaware she needed to be concerned until awakened about the flooding. It seems she immediately ratcheted up the panic. Meanwhile, Jared found this the best time in the world to go cruising down the boulevard. Sidebar: Jared was one of the sleepers as well. He was awakened only because Dale was looking for aid against the near flood waters. PU SHA to all the sleepers.)
Mollie:
Mom and dad just woke me up... We had to pick things up off the floor. We were about 1 inch away from having water coming in the hours from all doors. CRAZY. It looks like the water is going away from the house now. But it was touch and go for about 30 minutes. Jared took a drive around and said there is water everywhere. But the church looks okay. Dad just said it's the grace of God the water slowed down. That's the only reason we're not picking up furniture. Whew. Marlie is just now scared. But she went from a zero to a six when mom woke us up.
Also, we are still without power. If y'all laptops are charged you can plug your phones into your laptop and they will charge. Just FYI....
(I was still concerned about being hot.)
Lisa:
Ok I'm gonna try to sleep but it's hot.
(But before I drifted off hotly, Melanie had something to say about the government and the stupid project they spent money on building an unnecessary turning lane on a 2 lane road.)
Melanie:
Oh and even Anita lane is backing up with water. That's almost NEVER happened in the nearly 27 yrs we've been here. I think we can thank OLIVER RD STIMULUS STUPID for all this water.
(I gave a final statement on how close we came to disaster before I went to try to sleep hot. Six seconds after the crisis ended, John was sound asleep. ANNOYING!!)
Lisa:
We were headed to flooding as well if we hadn't had some slow downs in the rain. John was really worried, he ALMOST stopped snoring. I was worried about Jared’s house but he didn’t get any water I guess?
Lydia:
No, Jared is fine
(Then Melanie found something funny and decided to share….only in the south.)
Melanie:
They just showed a sign in Bastrop where they think a tornado hit. But the bbq sign they showed said “you don't need no teeth to eat my beef"......love it.
(Apparently, after Becky had a perfectly sound and cool night’s sleep, she awoke to thousands of emails and gave her two cents.)
Becky:
oy vey y'all have had a night - glad all is well now and hope the water is receding
(Because banks close for no man or weather conditions, Carlie had to go to work the next morning and found out they had no power. ctb won’t be identified any other way in order to keep anonymity for Carlie T's workplace)
Carlie:
Power is out at ctb. Lisa do ya'll have power?
(The next few emails were all about not having electricity and our comfort zone being breached and then Mollie pointed out we could have missed the royal wedding if this flood happening had happened just 2 short days later. Also, still without air condition, I KNOW I was hot.)
Lisa:
No power and my bat is at 4%. Neville is closed. I'm out til I get some tricity.
Olivia:
No we don't have power.
Mollie:
We are still in the dark too... How am I supposed to get some stinkin coffee?! It's quite necessary today. Also, do y'all have any idea how pissed I would have been if this would have happened Thursday night/Friday. We would have missed the entire wedding. Our dvr doesn't record when there's no tricity... Obviously. I would have been maaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
(I was intrigued when I learned the bank had no power and was IMMEDIATELY interested about the vault situation and if there was free money available to people nearby. Even though there was no money where Lindsey works, I needed to know if the school was open in case I had to go to work.)
Lisa:
Carlie do yal have power and Lin is grace open
(Since Carlie was out and about, she assessed the power situation in our area, AND I just now realized that she kept quiet the WHOLE TIME about the fact that she never lost power at her house. PU SHA to Carlie as well.)
Carlie:
We never lost power at our house. All the gas stations have power so it must be from ctb and over ya'lls direction.
(Lindsey then told us that all the teachers and kids were at school but ALL had bad attitudes.)
Lindsey:
We are here. It's quiet though. We're all tired and not many people, children or adults, have good attitudes!!!!!
(By now my phone was completely dead, so I moved over to Olivia’s phone to stay in contact with the outside world.)
Olivia:
Ugh. Awful. This is Lisa on Olivia’s phone. I need to charge our phones somewhere. Are you home Carlie?
Carlie:
No, I'm at work. Well, I was. Now I’m at the doctor’s office. But I opened this morning and the lights have been out, I'm guessing since last night. Funnnnn.
(Hmmmmm free money!!!!)
(Emma had to work as well since ULM didn’t close and found a few things askew on campus.)
Emma:
I'm at ULM and there was debris on campus, but not too much. At the turn to go past the sculptures there's a small tree down and a street light laying in the road.
(And then my world changed in an instant with the addition to lighting in my life. Also, John took Owen to school for no reason since it was closed due to some flooding in the school. Also again, the DAY BEFORE the storm, I had remulched by azalea bed in my backyard and then the monsoon hit us. My mulch became "redistributed" by the flood water just like a liberal democrat redistributes my freaking money.)
Lisa:
We have power!!! Yay yay yay!! John and Owen went to Neville and as he was getting out, a parent told them the school was closed because the basement was flooded. They rode around and saw a whole pine tree down nearby on riverside. Lots of water line debris all over the place. Also my hard sweated and paid for mulch looks lovely ALL over my yard. Grrrrrrr
And there you have it folks. The end to a night that will never be forgotten, but somehow was made a little more humorous by us sticking together if only through the email process.
This took multi days to accomplish with much typing and I’m certain there are some typos. Hopefully it's more amusing than confusing. But I found it quite enjoyable to myself.
The end.
The email about the storm first began when Melanie informed us of seeing a report of bad weather around Corsicana. Here’s how it started.
Melanie:
Just turned on weather channel and they said there was rotation around Corsicana, so I got on facebook and it says a report of a funnel cloud near OAK VALLEY! Shut up it may BLOW AWAY.
Lindsey:
Is someone checking on it?
Melanie:
I guess Bo or Jimmie will tell us if it's gone.
(Bo or Jimmie are good neighbors….not state farm….down the road from Gran’s)
Carrie:
They (the TV people) are going to the weather at each commercial and it's all around there, so who knows. Yes, someone will let us know I am sure (if the house is blown off the map.)
(This is now the blog me with my rendition of a phone call telling us the house is no longer available for habitation….if in fact the house blew away. The following conversation with Bo or Jimmie would go something like this. “DUDES…..your house is GOOOOONNNNNEEEEEEEE!!!!! Since we received no phone call, we are assuming the house is still standing……along with the help of many, many ants.)
Lindsey:
Bill says the storm is gonna be really bad!!! But he said that last night. I'm kinda nervous. (Shockingly enough, the weather man had been wrong the night before which caused Lindsey to be skeptical of listening to Bill on this eve.)
Melanie:
I know they say it could get bad...but it'll be fine I pray.
(Carlie is one nervous Nellie when it comes to storms. Her email came in seemingly frantic.)
Carlie:
This is serious business!!!
(Carlie’s panic immediately spread which caused Lindsey to ask….)
Lindsey:
Should we take cover?!?
(Melanie, trying to keep her daughters calm responded with…)
Melanie:
Be prepared to take cover YES but just keep an eye on channel 8.
(Lydia also tried to reassure.)
Lydia:
Put your shoes by your bed, also candle and matches and don't be scared.
(Olivia however wasn’t watching channel 8, she was watching Rosie the weather dog who takes up residence in the bathroom during bad weather. This is no lie, but a real fact as evidenced by photos I’ve already posted and shant post again.)
Olivia:
Guys, it's cool, Rosie's still in the den.
(In the next email, I announced to all the peeps we had lost power. I remember being annoyed and pist because I knew we were gonna be a long time without lights. Now, picture us in our house, sitting in chairs, in the pitch dark, with some choice words for losing our electricity and then fumbling around looking for any and all primitive lighting accessories. This next statement is riveting…..wait for it.)
Lisa:
We just lost power
(Told you.)
(Mollie then gave Olivia an air high five by telling her she enjoyed the Rosie weather dog comment by Olivia…..but dash it, darkness fell at the Walker house as well.)
Mollie:
Hahahahah Olivia, hilarious! But there went our power.
(Now I’m not sure exactly what went down at this point for Carlie to express the omg with exclaims but it could have been a thunder clash or a mega lightning bolt or the fact that we lost power or she just hadn’t panicked in a bit.)
Carlie:
Omg!!!!!!
(Melanie chimed in about Rosie and then waved it all up in our grill that she in fact was cool and still well lit.) (This is not in reference to alcohol….that’s another kind of lit.)
Melanie:
Haha, Rosie the weather Dog. we Still have Power
(Carrie enjoyed the Rosie comment as well, but if you read it as she wrote it, it would seem that Rosie was actually “going to the bathroom” instead of just going to the bathroom. Again 2 VERY different things here.)
Carrie:
Hahaha that's funny Liv. I was just thinking about Lisa”s blog saying Rosie goes to the bathroom when it's stormy and I am thinking Rosie isn't stupid!!!!
(Emma joined the fray by stating she was in the hall in preparation for taking cover. She and Carlie wouldn’t make good partners during stormy conditions. An accurate picture of the two of them would look something like this…..both of them grabbing each other by the shoulders and screaming at the top of their lungs…..“WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!! NOT. A. GOOD. COMBO.)
Emma:
Me and Liv are sitting in the hall. I'm so nervous
(Olivia wanted it known that she was the moral supporter and not a scaredy cat.)
Olivia:
I'm here for support only. Psh I'm not scared.
(Caitlin, as usual showed her concern for her fellow man by chiming in with….)
Caitlin:
I am ticked that this whole thing has interrupted my Mario kart!
(Olivia made an astute observation about our “lights out” situation.)
Olivia:
It's like we're in the 1800's only with iPhones.
(Olivia quickly sent another email regarding Rosie the weather dog. This many emails from Olivia is quite the phenomenon.)
Olivia:
Rosie's gone into the bathroom but she walked out. She's not feelin this long term.
(Melanie then wondered if Lindsey was up or down.)
Melanie:
Lindsey status report, are you sleeping thru this
(At this point, Carlie became overwhelmed at the sight of hail at her abode as she stated the obvious to the rest of us.)
Carlie:
HAIL!!!!
(This email from Lindsey came in order to answer Melanie’s question, after the email from Carlie regarding the hail…..you HAVE to keep up people!! Lindsey sent pics of her dogs taking cover.)
Lindsey:
Nooooooo I'm soooooooooo tired but scared!!!!! We’re in the bathroom. Hail is CRAZY!
Ellie looking as if she's at attention.
Grace, looking depressed.
(We finally made the decision to go to the hall/bathroom for shelter and then told everyone about the move.)
Lisa:
We are in the hall. All of us and the dogs
(Emma decided to freak.)
Emma:
I'm so stressed out guys!! My tummy hurts
(Carlie is feeling the depths of Emma’s despair.)
Carlie:
We're in the kitchen/den....not taking shelter yet.
Emma, I was having a full on panic attack earlier.
(Then Lydia weighed in with some information which is unclear to me. Either they have hail as well as the rest of us, OR they all went into the bathroom for shelter. I’m not sure which is correct. She then gave us some information to lighten the mood even though some might say it was a tad too much.)
Lydia:
Us also. And the church alarm went off and dale had to go up there but he is back and all is well. Also if something happens tonight I want u all to know I have on clean underwear. Love you all
(Back at our house, Emma was not in full panic but was very very nervous when the following conversation was had between Olivia and her father. Caitlin decided to take the opportunity to make a joke. Emma thought it not funny at all.) The ME in the convo is Olivia….the Dad is….well….Dad.
Olivia:
Me: I could really use a mucinex (I went on about how I'm getting over my cold, not important)
Dad: do you want me to get you one?
Me: nah I'll wait til later.
Caitlin: if there is a later...
Mom, Owen, Caitlin, dad, and I laugh pretty hard.
Dad: you made me lose a life! (he was playing a game on his phone)
Caitlin: said something about the storm and our real lives.
Emma did not appreciate any of this. She says her weather class knowledge is kicking in and earlier in the year she was all like “whatever” but now she wants to go back and listen to the lectures again. I think around the 3rd lecture she'd be bored of it. Emma is now in worse shape than Rosie is.
(Hail apparently arrived at the Herrock house.)
Lisa:
We have hail too
(See?)
(It might seem that Lydia went outside to count their hail pieces…..I don’t think she did.)
Lydia:
We got 10 pieces of hail
(Because I can’t pass up a good joke, I decided to congratulate Lydia on the comment about the wearing of clean underwear and tell everyone we left the bathroom 7 seconds after we entered. Also, I was obviously very worried about sleeping….or rather not sleeping without AC. )
Lisa:
Ha ha ha Lydia that's pretty funny and we are out of the b room. Poor Ellie and grace. Its barely raining here. (Crazy rain had yet to begin falling.) I'm worried about sleeping hot.
(Becky finally acted like she cared a pinch before she went and tucked her little self into her comfy and cool bed. The u/n is of course in reference to Lydia’s comment about clean undies.)
Becky:
good to know about the u/w - hang tight all. Love and hugs
yall should be rollin' tape in the hallway - take care all
(After I brought to Olivia’s attention that our Dr Peppers were trying to be frozen in a freezer with no electricity, she found herself in a state of grrrrrrrrr.)
Olivia:
Grrrrrrrr at this rate if the lights stay off, I'm only going to have a really cold dp instead of a frozen one!
(Melanie tried to comfort Carlie and Emma from afar.)
Melanie:
We got a little hail. Poor Carlie. You just can't get over your nervousness about storms. When you were little and would come get in our bed, I was so glad that you would fine there with us. I always thought that must be the greatest feeling for you. Little did you know there wasn't much we could've done but you did feel safe. Emma a little knowledge is a scary thing
(Whitney decided to join the convo for a sec and tease us with a fake invite for pancakes as well as make fun of a visiting yankee.)
Whitney:
Guys. It's all good. Anyone who wants pancakes...come on over, but get Carlie to cook em cause I'm going to sleep. Also, we have a male guest visiting at our house tonight. He's one of courtney’s classmates and he’s from up north and they don't have tornados up there...he’s panicked and didn't want to be alone. Ha. Funny.
(Melanie then decided to ratchet up the caution quotient by being the bearer of more bad news.)
Melanie:
It's NOT OVER there's more around Arcadia and coming our way. In Jesus name it'll be fine but we have to stay ALERT !!!!!!
(Then Carrie was all like, “Please shut up about your endangered lives, I need some input on the taping of the royal wedding.”)
Carrie:
Well do stay alert but tell me what channel are yal going to tape the weddin on??
(Once again, Melanie was all braggy about having electricity and stated the following.)
Melanie:
I'm taping as many as possible. You've got what 6? I'm doing the BBC, abc maybe tlc and E Haven't fully decided
(Then it was Carrie’s turn to brag.)
Carrie:
I can tape up to 4 I have BBC and E so far
(The two of them continued to talk about the wedding for a few and then Carrie tried to show a bit of concern again.)
Melanie:
Abc cause Barbara Walters was dianas "friend" so they say
Carrie:
I may have done that one too I will check. So is it quiet now? do yal have power back?
Melanie:
No we r still in it and the others are in bed or conserving phone power since they have no power
(Even though the crazy rain never got announced, it had begun and I was running low on my battery on the only device I had connecting us to the outside world.)
Lisa:
Our street is flooded and the water is to our sidewalk. We don't need more rain (thank you Captain Obvious). And we have no power and probably won't have any for awhile. I'm at 45% battery. I'm out.
(Melanie related some weather news and the hope that we wouldn’t be needing rowboats and oars, also an invite to those of us sleeping hot.)
Melanie:
There's another line coming our way but could stay south of us hopefully. There's a tree down on 2nd and roselawn (we drove by it the next day and found the tree had indeed kicked the crap out of a house. Ding ding ding...first and only round of the fight definitely went to the tree.) Stubbs at 6th is flooded. A subdivision in West Monroe behind wal mart is flooded. Lisa ya'll can come over here, got 2 beds and couches
(Lindsey, not yet asleep, offered beds and Bill’s concern that weather related things were still dicey. Any reference people made about still having power I considered a slap in my face.)
Lindsey:
I have power (slap) and open beds because no one is sleeping! Bill just woke me up because of wind. He wanted us both in the b room. Mom is dad awake? That's my level of seriousness.
(Randy was unconcerned for his eternal soul and went to bed. Austin may have been in a rowboat by now since his neighborhood was surrounded by wind and water and danger.)
Melanie:
Ha ha no he went to bed about 12. Louisville Ave. is flooded. Austin is surrounded by all of it.
(Carrie, overcome with concern for all of us, told us via email she was so worried that she fell asleep! Offensive!)
Carrie:
Well I have had a freakin nap and can't go back to sleep. Pray this passes by yal soon
(Melanie, with her fancy electricity and full battery cell phone was trying to keep people informed of how close the water was to some of us. Umm hello, I’m cornered by Forsythe and Oliver, so my house is in deep poo.)
Melanie:
We've got some flooding going on. They showed forsythe at Oliver and it's totally flooded. Facebook says 28,000 without power. (Yep I know about 10 people, personal like, that were sitting in the dark.)
(Because Owen’s trying to keep his Gold card status, and because I could easily be a stage mother if I allowed myself, I was concerned about school being open for the boy. My battery was getting dangerously low and caused me to wonder about getting in my car, plugging my phone in and running it in the carport in order to increase the life of my phone. After weighing gas prices against cell phone bat, I opted out.)
Lisa:
Anything about schools being closed. We have no power and therefore no alarms. My bat is at 28%
(The News Star, a cracker jack operation, had no info on schools which meant we had to get up at 6:30 in order to get Owen to school in case in wasn’t closed.)
Melanie:
No school announcements yet, but I'm thinking it's possible because of water, but don't know
(Then, Whitney chimed in with a game changer……but only for her.)
Whitney:
I'M AWAKE AS WELL. AND OTIS HAS SEVERE GAS.
(The Walkers as well as my family were sweating 2 things. Literal sweat due to being hot, as well as the rain coming down so heavily and fast that water would soon be entering our humble homes. But, thank God the rain slacked up long enough for the flood waters to begin receding. Hallelujah!!)
Lydia:
No power for us and we were a hair’s breadth from flooding but the water seems to be receding.
(Apparently Mollie was another sleeper who if not awakened by her parents, may have last been seen floating on her mattress out the carport door and down the street. In my book, people who slept through the crisis don’t just automatically get to wake up and be part of the hanger on’ers. Marlie the pup was unaware she needed to be concerned until awakened about the flooding. It seems she immediately ratcheted up the panic. Meanwhile, Jared found this the best time in the world to go cruising down the boulevard. Sidebar: Jared was one of the sleepers as well. He was awakened only because Dale was looking for aid against the near flood waters. PU SHA to all the sleepers.)
Mollie:
Mom and dad just woke me up... We had to pick things up off the floor. We were about 1 inch away from having water coming in the hours from all doors. CRAZY. It looks like the water is going away from the house now. But it was touch and go for about 30 minutes. Jared took a drive around and said there is water everywhere. But the church looks okay. Dad just said it's the grace of God the water slowed down. That's the only reason we're not picking up furniture. Whew. Marlie is just now scared. But she went from a zero to a six when mom woke us up.
Also, we are still without power. If y'all laptops are charged you can plug your phones into your laptop and they will charge. Just FYI....
(I was still concerned about being hot.)
Lisa:
Ok I'm gonna try to sleep but it's hot.
(But before I drifted off hotly, Melanie had something to say about the government and the stupid project they spent money on building an unnecessary turning lane on a 2 lane road.)
Melanie:
Oh and even Anita lane is backing up with water. That's almost NEVER happened in the nearly 27 yrs we've been here. I think we can thank OLIVER RD STIMULUS STUPID for all this water.
(I gave a final statement on how close we came to disaster before I went to try to sleep hot. Six seconds after the crisis ended, John was sound asleep. ANNOYING!!)
Lisa:
We were headed to flooding as well if we hadn't had some slow downs in the rain. John was really worried, he ALMOST stopped snoring. I was worried about Jared’s house but he didn’t get any water I guess?
Lydia:
No, Jared is fine
(Then Melanie found something funny and decided to share….only in the south.)
Melanie:
They just showed a sign in Bastrop where they think a tornado hit. But the bbq sign they showed said “you don't need no teeth to eat my beef"......love it.
(Apparently, after Becky had a perfectly sound and cool night’s sleep, she awoke to thousands of emails and gave her two cents.)
Becky:
oy vey y'all have had a night - glad all is well now and hope the water is receding
(Because banks close for no man or weather conditions, Carlie had to go to work the next morning and found out they had no power. ctb won’t be identified any other way in order to keep anonymity for Carlie T's workplace)
Carlie:
Power is out at ctb. Lisa do ya'll have power?
(The next few emails were all about not having electricity and our comfort zone being breached and then Mollie pointed out we could have missed the royal wedding if this flood happening had happened just 2 short days later. Also, still without air condition, I KNOW I was hot.)
Lisa:
No power and my bat is at 4%. Neville is closed. I'm out til I get some tricity.
Olivia:
No we don't have power.
Mollie:
We are still in the dark too... How am I supposed to get some stinkin coffee?! It's quite necessary today. Also, do y'all have any idea how pissed I would have been if this would have happened Thursday night/Friday. We would have missed the entire wedding. Our dvr doesn't record when there's no tricity... Obviously. I would have been maaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
(I was intrigued when I learned the bank had no power and was IMMEDIATELY interested about the vault situation and if there was free money available to people nearby. Even though there was no money where Lindsey works, I needed to know if the school was open in case I had to go to work.)
Lisa:
Carlie do yal have power and Lin is grace open
(Since Carlie was out and about, she assessed the power situation in our area, AND I just now realized that she kept quiet the WHOLE TIME about the fact that she never lost power at her house. PU SHA to Carlie as well.)
Carlie:
We never lost power at our house. All the gas stations have power so it must be from ctb and over ya'lls direction.
(Lindsey then told us that all the teachers and kids were at school but ALL had bad attitudes.)
Lindsey:
We are here. It's quiet though. We're all tired and not many people, children or adults, have good attitudes!!!!!
(By now my phone was completely dead, so I moved over to Olivia’s phone to stay in contact with the outside world.)
Olivia:
Ugh. Awful. This is Lisa on Olivia’s phone. I need to charge our phones somewhere. Are you home Carlie?
Carlie:
No, I'm at work. Well, I was. Now I’m at the doctor’s office. But I opened this morning and the lights have been out, I'm guessing since last night. Funnnnn.
(Hmmmmm free money!!!!)
(Emma had to work as well since ULM didn’t close and found a few things askew on campus.)
Emma:
I'm at ULM and there was debris on campus, but not too much. At the turn to go past the sculptures there's a small tree down and a street light laying in the road.
(And then my world changed in an instant with the addition to lighting in my life. Also, John took Owen to school for no reason since it was closed due to some flooding in the school. Also again, the DAY BEFORE the storm, I had remulched by azalea bed in my backyard and then the monsoon hit us. My mulch became "redistributed" by the flood water just like a liberal democrat redistributes my freaking money.)
Lisa:
We have power!!! Yay yay yay!! John and Owen went to Neville and as he was getting out, a parent told them the school was closed because the basement was flooded. They rode around and saw a whole pine tree down nearby on riverside. Lots of water line debris all over the place. Also my hard sweated and paid for mulch looks lovely ALL over my yard. Grrrrrrr
And there you have it folks. The end to a night that will never be forgotten, but somehow was made a little more humorous by us sticking together if only through the email process.
This took multi days to accomplish with much typing and I’m certain there are some typos. Hopefully it's more amusing than confusing. But I found it quite enjoyable to myself.
The end.
5 comments:
hahahahah hilarious!
and i will say it again, STORM CELLAR!!! let's get on it, people!
Hahahaha SO halarious.
Carlie you've got to invent a storm cellar that will be impervious to the water(said with a song) that was quite entertaining well done
Ellie and grace looked so sad!!! We all wanted to be sleeping!!
I personally enjoyed the storm until WHITNEY planted the idea in my head of a tree falling on our house. At one point, the weatherman (who was panicking) announced to stay away from large oak trees...well, we are surrounded by them - Carlie was present for my 3 seconds of panic. I quickly regained composer. Yankee friend was a Carlie-level panicker. He is still talking about the night he almost died. He too is a therapist and should know how to control his panic. I remind him regularly that I saved his life and he owes me.
Great commentary Lisa!
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