Home Safe and Sound

Thursday Night

Justin and I go to bed to the sound of heavy rain outside. So far it has been three straight hours of the hardest rain you have heard in a West Texas Thundersorm.

Friday Morning

Justin spends 1.5 hours in the car before returning home unable to make it to work due to high water on the roadways.

Murni, one of our staff, shows up to work and tells the tale of her boat ride into the complex. High water reported in areas around our house.

Friday Mid-morning

Water continues to rise around Jakarta and in our complex.
My morning shower is thwarted by reports of brown water coming out of our faucets.
Our electricity goes out.

Friday Lunchtime

We cook pizza by candlelight.
More reports of homes in our complex starting to flood.
Rain continues.

Friday Mid-afternoon

After a family vote (the triplet bloc carried the vote), we decide to evacute our home and head to a hotel with the assistance of Justin's company. We gather our things and prepare for a "boat trip".

Okay, here is where it gets interesting. it was like something you see on the news after a bad rain storm, but it is always someone else. Well this time, it was us. Our security guard, 2 of our staff and a couple of "rescue men", escorted us, with our 2 dufflebags and 1 backpack, about a block away from our home to a rubber boat. We boarded the boat, waved goodbye to our staff and some men climbed into the water and began to pull the raft down the street of our complex which was now like a lake. One man sat in the boat and bailed water as we made our way to the front of the complex to a car waiting to take us to the hotel. It was a little crazy. Until we left our house and walked to the boat, we had no idea that the water was this high. However, our house was never in danger of flooding.

Friday Evening

Hotel reports no phone service.

Toll road in front of our hotel becomes like a parking lot most of the night as roadway is blocked by high water. The traffic was still stopped dead at midnight.

Saturday

Hung out with friends from our complex. Went bowling. Had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, we were roughing it.

Were advised to stay at hotel another night as more rain was in the forecast and a dam upstream on the river that runs through our complex was scheduled to release water.

Sunday Morning

Water supply problems at the hotel. Justin's company tells us they have rooms at another hotel for us if we would like to stay in a hotel another night.

We return home to check things out. After the guy climbs into the (Sadam spider hole-like) water storage area in the front yard to give it a good scrub, the water coming out of the faucets no longer was brown. By mid-afternoon, we decided that the house is safe to inhabit. So now we are home safe and sound.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers during this time. We had no problems, and our staff only had one close call. Our driver Sarif had water almost come in his house.