Natural Disasters

I am not bragging when stating that I have lived through an earthquake and several tornadoes. My beloved Gabriel and I even camped out during a tornado, and it was his first experience with camping. There we were, hunkered down in the tent, which the wind was forcing flat over our prostrate forms. You would imagine that he would be skittish over the idea of camping after that, but the event seems to not have fazed him. He routinely camps out with his Boy Scout troop.

My kids and I were fortunate to not be in residence when our house burned to the ground – and that was my second house fire (the first one happened when I was around 5 years old) .

Yes, I've had the great fortune to weather all sorts of disaster but, Friends, I've never seen a rain like this.

It has been raining for 2 solid weeks in Wuhan. Not a gentle, soaking rain but a vengeful, drowning rain.

By the 3^rd of July, our campus was overwhelmed. What should have been streets were now canals: 

The sewers could not keep up; even manhole covers were popping up. You can see by my foot that the water was ankle-deep... in that part of campus. Elsewhere, it came almost up to my knees. 

Around the city: street were flooded out, landslides blocked tunnels and train tracks. Buses have stopped running and, in fact, the whole city is at a standstill. Meanwhile, brave troops line up to form rescue teams, carrying people through chest-deep water:

While others quickly make sandbags in an attempt to contain the engorged Yangtze River

Perhaps it was too late... see the flooded city:

 And other disasters:

And still, it rains! Here is our campus' sports field, 3 days ago, and today (from a slightly different angle): it is completely under water. 

Stats: 67 dead, 20 missing, more than 20 million affected by these floods. The economic losses and property damage toll have yet to be counted. President Xi Jinping has ordered more military to the region and Premier Li Keqiang toured the area today.

We are expecting the rain to last through Thursday. Please keep Wuhan and Hubei province in your hearts and prayers!