Missouri Flooding...

Ok, so maybe you haven't heard enough yet about the Floods of 2007 and how they are comparing this to the Floods of 1993 and the expectation to be even worse...

Of course all this just takes me back to those infamous floods and the devastation that they caused. It really did affect me personally as I was planning my wedding on the Mabel A Truss bridge at English Landing park in Parkville, set for September 5th, 1993. And as if that wasn't bad enough.... I was in Maryville, MO attending my last semester of college at NWMSU facing more devastation and flooding there. I lived in a basement apartment with my roommate Darcey, watching the water come in and just get deeper and deeper! With wedding plans and invitations to address getting moved up higher and higher to avoid the flooding and try to stay dry. We had about 2 feet of water throughout our apartment and everything was ruined! For some reason I remember us climbing on the counters in the kitchen to get to the fridge to try to get it unplugged to avoid electricution in the rising waters. I dunno, maybe that wasn't the smartest thing in retrospect?! But needless to say, we did survive and so did the invitations! Our landlord got the water out and much to his chagrin, he even took the mildew and molding carpets out and I think he might have eventually even replaced some of it?!

So, back to Parkville... I remember coming home and just going downtown to visit and view the devestation... It was just overwhelming as they had the roads closed and sandbagging efforts were nearly abandoned and almost useless... The water was over the tracks over the highway- making the park literally non-exsistant! It all seemed hopeless and at that point all we could do was pray. I did a lot of that! And the water did go down. Eventually. You can still visit some of the shops, the bank, the firehouse, and other various buildings and landmarks to see the markings of how high the water got. Although the water did go down, it was mearly a swampland by my wedding date and although I argued, begged and pleaded; it just wasn't happening there.... much too messy and for a sunset wedding in a swampy mesquite breeding park, probably not the best place to say our vows. (Good thing we had a back up, in case of "rain.") It still makes me sad though.... I always say that maybe one day, we'll reinact the wedding or renew our vows down there as we had originally planned, but first I think I'll have to shed a few pounds so I can fit back into my original dress?! someday....