Pummelled by Mother Nature

There's nothing in the world quite like the feeling of being woken up by the tornado sirens out of a deep sleep at 1 am. That was our night last night as we sat in our house struggling to find a station with details wondering in the dark where the tornado touchdown happened. This was the second time in the past week we've had to take shelter because of tornado touchdown and about the 4th day out of six that we've had severe weather come through.

Northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa are getting pummelled right now and there seems to be no relief in sight. Cedar Rapids is getting a lot of press right now as the entire city is experiencing epic flooding. Lake Delton in the Dells was literally drained without notice (we are talking about a HUGE man made lake...and it wasn't even the dam that broke). Milwaukee got 3-4 inches of rain in about 30 minutes last weekend (we were there for it) causing streets and highways to shut down. By us, the Fox River has reached peak levels and has started to flood all of the neighboring communities (McHenry, Antioch, etc). Its only going to get worse too as water from Wisconsin comes down the river to an already maxed out Illinois.

Luckily for us, being in a new neighborhood, the threat of flooding is pretty small...they grade yards really well and the sewer system is great, but there are a lot of people that have lost homes, jobs, loved ones, etc. My heart goes out to the people affected by the situation in Lake Delton and in Cedar Rapids...I know what they are going through and its the worst. It's a helpless feeling as there is nothing you can do to stop it or to save everything you've spent years acquiring. Make sure you keep these people in your prayers and pray for relief as the storms just keep coming through and hitting the same exact areas. Even as I write I look on the radar and more severe storms are on their way through which means Friday will be the 5th day of seven that we've had severe storms...and I mean SEVERE.