Tuesday, June 28, 2011 :: Are YOU a flood victim??

First of all, if you're interested in the T-shirts, I will be taking orders thru the weekend and placing an order Monday morning. IF you would like one, they are $10 each, with 2XL and 3XL being $12 each. I can order kids' sizes, too. We are planning to order both charcoal shirts with white print, and light gray shirts with deep red print, if there's interest for both. Something like this (use your imagination)

These are mock-ups of what they (hopefully) will look like. So the actual ones might vary slightly.

I know they say "Flood Victim", and some of you may not feel like you are a flood victim. Well, I would answer that with, "If you even just live or work near a flooded area such as ours, you are indeed a flood victim." Have you had to take an alternate (much longer) route to get somewhere because of flood waters or closed roads? Do you own or work at a business that has felt the effects of less traffic and less money going through our area? Do you realize a disaster of this magnitude affects everyone, from the grocery store, to restaurants, to the parts store, the body shop, and the fertilizer plant? Including families who work there? Do you realize people will not come to Big Lake for vacation, bringing revenue to the county? Or people from here, heading elsewhere to vacation, taking dollars to that part of the country? The loss of crops up and down the Missouri river basin will mean higher prices for farmers, but that means higher prices for basic food items for everyone. Trucking lines have to find alternate (longer) routes around flooded roads, meaning higher shipping prices. 

So whether you feel like a flood victim or not, we ALL will in some way feel the effects of this.  I don't say this so you will buy a T-shirt, because this is really not a money-making venture for us. It is a "spread awareness" kind of thing. I'm hoping people will wear their T-shirts diligently, and spread the word about the damage that has been done. That it will be a constant reminder that this doesn't just affect me, it affects us all.

For more info about the T-shirts, click here.

As for what the water situation looks like around here? Water is still coming, slowly but surely. The following photos were taken from an intersection 2000 feet south of our place (less than 1/2 of a mile). I shot these looking east, then south, then west. We own all of this corn. Well, I would say the Army Corps of Engineers owns this corn, but they just own the water.

Also, over on the other side of the levee, here's an irrigation pivot of ours that apparently got flipped over during the massive windstorm Sunday night--whenever you see pivot tires up in the air, especially sticking out of floodwater, that's not a good thing.

We're still in our house. Looks like we will be for a while since the water is moving in so slow. And maybe, just maybe, one of these days the water will actually stop moving.

Tomorrow night--I'll include a song that has meant a lot to me today. It's by Casting Crowns...any guesses??