Last weekend, nearly my entire family gathered together to celebrate my niece's birthday. Sitting on the deck at my sister's house, my dad regaled my brother and brother-in-law with stories from the flood.
About an hour before the levee broke, my uncle (who was somewhat in charge of prevention efforts), pulled Dad off the end loader he was running, telling him they had to "go check something out up at the river."
Dad called Mom quickly to tell her what was going on, and that he loved her.
Together with my other uncle and my cousin, they hopped on ATVs and drove the half-mile to the levee, where as feared, "dirty boils" were popping up all over. (weak spots where water and dirt were flowing through).
They knew it was over when they spotted them.
At that point, they signaled for the entire sandbagging operation to get the hell out of dodge. Fifteen minutes later, the levee broke.
Why did Dad call my mom before getting on the four-wheeler?
They didn't have enough time to grab life jackets.
If the levee would have broken when they were by it... well, let's just say that I could have lost four family members.
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