Midnight Dreams

Floods

    This past few years where I live, we've had a lot of rain. Which is where my name meaning comes from. Rain. It was March 2018. Snow was starting to melt not only in Nebraska and off the Rocky Mountains into our river systems. It was the worst year for flooding I've ever seen. Saint Paul was flooded by about two inches off the actual ground. And other places not the and west of Grand Island and Wood River.  My heart broke for those people. They lost everything they have worked on. One house fell into the lake. It's this massive lake of the woods. Ezra's only remaining family members live there. Starla and Jaar. His uncle and aunt live there. Their neighbors house fell in the lake. We watched the house fall in. All the dirt and installation and everything you would think of, furniture, flooring, glass, everything went in. We couldn't help out all that much. But everything settled to the deepest part of the lake. About 50 feet down. Construction crews helped take care of most of it.
    I watched them bring up half of the house. Just drenched by the water. The smell was awful. Almost like death. I couldn't stand it. I've been in battlefields but the worst smell ever is a house being pulled out of a lake.
   We helped Ezra's aunt and uncle clean up. Now all that was left to do was wait for the water to settle down. But what if we had more snow and rain?
   The whole area of Grand Island and my home city Aurora would be flooded. Ice would be on the banks. Grand Island has a river going over the part to the entrance of the city. Ice would be all over and the banks would be overflowed if the rain was worse.
   I would have gotten great data for the rain. Rainstorms are always the best for data for storms. And lightning would have always been flashing. We would be knee deep in water. The smell when everything settled would be awful. That's the worst thing to ever happen. Flooding is dangerous. Everything can change with one simple amount of flooding. That's why I protect my property. Our home is protected. I have a 2 inch concrete fence around my plot of land. Not only my land, but my parents land, my uncles land, and our friends land that's right next to us. Their farm is right next to ours so it would have destroyed both of our farms if we had tremendous amounts of flooding. I would like for that not to happen. But if it ever does, we help each other.
   Like the great storm of 2020. May 8th, 2020. We had severe thunderstorm watches all day. The kids where worried about it in school. But I made them go anyway. I had just gotten beautiful hydrangeas to go in my outside garden and not in the green house. They framed the entrance of the green house. I was busy planting them when my son Michael called. "How's the weather at home mom?" He asked. "Son you're only five minutes away. It's sunny here. I'm planting the hydreangeas." "I told you to wait for me to help you!" "Oh please you know I can do this myself. I planted the whole green house by myself." I told him with a sarcastic tone of voice. "Alright. Have you seen those storm clouds?" "Yes. I see them now. Their the biggest thunderheads I've seen." "I know! Their at least three thousand feet tall. It might be over Omaha by now." "I think so too. Their saying it's coming from that way." "Thats not normal. Storms usually come from the west to the east. Not east to west. Is that a bad thing?" "Well... I'm not sure son. We'll keep an eye on it. Now get to class." "Alright. I have Agriculture now." "Have fun. Bye." "Bye mom." He said. I hung up and got dirt all over my phone. "Great. That boy of mine just doesn't know what he's doing." Then over my phone came severe thunderstorm warning. "Uh oh. Maybe he was right." It went from sunny and nice and about 75 degrees to about 56 degrees, cloudy and windy. "Alright... Maybe I need to get inside." I took off my gloves finished planting the hydreangeas and locked up the green house. I grabbed my phone put my car in the garage and waited for the kids to come home. They released the kids early. At 2pm. A tornado watch was issued. "That's just great. I don't even have the car ready to chase!" I told myself. "Who are you talking to?" My husband came in. "The weatherman. Who else would I be talking to?" "What's go... Oh. The kids have to drive through that rain!" Ezra said with a scared tone in his voice. I was getting nervous. The kids haven't mastered driving in rain on the dirt roads yet. I was nervous. They all made it home. Including Rey and Ben's kids. They told us they where in their storm shelter. The kids where doing their homework. It got super loud. "What's going on?!" Sierra tried yelling. "What?!" "It's hailing." I texted the kids. "To the basement everyone! Now!" We got in and I locked the door. Now we just waited out the storm. "Everyone okay?" "Yes. Even the animals are in the barn." "It's wind driven hail. Or otherwise known as..." "Bullet hail." Everyone said. "Good. Hopefully it doesn't kill my plants I just planted." "I know mom." "How do you know your mother planted plants?" "He called me during his lunch break." I said. "Tornado warning." My daughter Ophelia phone screamed. "Huh?" I asked Ophelia. "Oh it just does that when the winds are higher than seventy miles per hour." "Oh. That's probably not a good thing." It got quieter. Father knocked on the door. I unlocked it. "You guys gotta see this." He said with a smile and shock on his face. "What?" "It hailed so much that it looks like snow on the ground!" We all looked at each other. The kids went out in the hailed yard. I was shocked. I wished I got the data for this storm. I wanted to see the atmospheric pressure that lead to the whole city to be hailed. And just as I figured... My plants where destroyed. I paid two hundred dollars for those plants to be in my yard. I was so upset my flowers where destroyed. But everyone was okay. And the animals where okay. Just lost a few shingles off my barn and my house and a few windows where busted. At least everyone was okay. That's all I am glad about. My family was okay. And everyone was okay.