As our family drove home from Canada Day celebrations, the day rapidly changed moods. Since morning, we'd enjoyed sunshine at a heritage site about an hour southwest. Now, in stark contrast to the blue and gold, the afternoon sky became a collage of bizarre cloud formations. Some, blinding white and shaped like colossal cauliflowers, grew rapidly larger.
In the back seat and looking skyward, Benjamin Bean told cloud-stories. "That one's a dragon, see? And there's its baby. It looks HUNGRY!"
The sky lost its friendliness, blackening fast, until only a fist-sized clear spot remained. Then that disappeared too.
Rain comin', we said, cruising through the city of Yorkton, our long-time home until last year, when we moved a few miles north.
We'd been invited to a barbeque that evening. Guess the barbecue's off, I thought.
Noah came to mind too. With what would you have us build an ark, Lord? No gopher wood in this part of the prairie. And can we forget the pair of mosquitoes?
Moments after we shut our house doors behind us, a storm of biblical proportions descended. The rain started and the power quit. Thunder reverberated. Lightning zipped across the horizon.
Over the next several hours, six inches of water fell on Yorkton and area. According to those who know such things, that's 894,321,540 gallons of water, spread over 6, 570 acres of city. It rushed off concrete and asphalt, found the lowest places, filled them up, and kept rising.
One person, standing in a basement apartment living room, noticed something strange on the wall. Sudden cracks appeared and raced floor-ward. A second later, the entire wall caved in, followed by another wall - rushing water. Swimming out was the only alternative. And waiting for rescue by canoe.
Up to seven feet of floodwater filled over half of Yorkton basements. It poured into hollows in the lowest parts of town. A sudden sea sprawled over farm fields between our home and the city, necessitating livestock evacuation.
Thank God, no lives were lost - but multiple homes and businesses were destroyed. Canada Day 2010 will find a place in local history books.
The sea has diminished somewhat. The deluge has run off. Felled trees have become firewood. Roofs sport colorful tarps. Basement windows wear boards. And waterlogged living room furniture and carpets hunker curbside, waiting for pickup.
But the storm continues in the lives of my neighbours - and yours. Look at their faces, wet with tears, electrified by shock. More than possessions were lost. Lifestyles rushed downstream. Speaking from experience, new normal takes years to find.
The Preacher and I had the privilege of sharing a chili supper at Parkland Community Church - a fundraiser for flood victims. We ate, we contributed as others have to us in recent time of need, and we thanked God for people who speed his love in practical ways to those in desperate need of hope.
I challenge every Christian in Yorkton to do something. Are you willing?
