Flood update (Sun Sept 15th)

This morning we had church at 9:00am. One of the speakers who'd been invited did not come, because it was raining this morning and she would have to cross the Big Thompson River and did not feel comfortable not knowing if she'd be safe. (It was raining pretty hard that early, too).

Our high councilman spoke about the proceedings at Stake Council this morning. He said the flooding was the only topic addresses. Our stake has been divided in two groups: wards that flooded and those who would be asked to make donations. My ward had very minimal damage. . . . I mentioned in my last post that we are on a hill, but what I really meant was a plateau. Most of my ward is on this plateau & sustained minimal damage.

He delivered a message about the General Conference in Salt Lake City when the residents were asked to go get the handcart pioneers in Wyoming and bring them in. He likened our situation to that, and asked that we give donations of baby supplies (formula, food, diapers, clothing), non-perishable foods, and basic hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, washcloths, etc).

He advised us that we could use the time after meetings were over to go shopping for these items or bring what we had at home. We only contributed things from around our home. It felt great to have these things around in case of our own emergency, but even better to give them away to people who are in dire need.

Shopping in our basement and closets . . . pretty good haul

Nathan went to deliver our things and said that the tables they had set up to collect were quickly filled--a constant stream of people pouring in and out delivering needed supplies. Later, he spoke to a member who said that the combined contributions filled two trailers.

The items will be delivered to a distribution center in Loveland to be used in the coming days and weeks.

We woke up to more rain . . . which was not predicted to fall until 9 am but started early. It's done now, at 5 p.m. My mood is significantly altered by the presence of a sunny sky. It was so nice to have the sun all afternoon FR and most of yesterday. This morning was harder with the rain. No rain

Our stake, the Loveland, Colorado Stake, has been assigned to ask for help from the Cheyenne East Stake if we need manpower to meet needs that our stake cannot handle. Each of the other stakes in our area, Boulder, Longmont, Greeley, Fort Collins, have similarly been partnered with another stake. I love knowing that there help has already been assigned. 

We will make it--it will be interesting to see which roads are worked on, and which ones will not be repaired.

My parents had some more flooding (BOO!) and I am supposed to appear for jury duty tomorrow. Never a dull moment.