Count Your Blessings

Josue and I tried to take pictures of the river rushing through our yard, but there was not enough light. Around midnight the water around our house had gone down enough for us to take these pictures looking into the windows from the outside.

Here you can see that the water is almost touching the seat cushions of our dining table set and the fridge has turned over due to the amount of water in the kitchen.

The water rose high enough to enter the oven, dryer, kitchen cabinets, and fridge.

The next morning, we reviewed the damage to the bridge beside our house.

After all the water was swept out, you can clearly see the line of yucky mess that remained.

Nasty mud was layered throughout the entire house.

The three guys are standing where we used to have posts marking our property line beside the river. Also, the land was as tall as where you see the grass in the middle of the picture.

The majority of the water entered through this side door at the garage.

The front yard is significantly higher than the back yard. Here you can see how high the water got to our bathroom window (approx. 8 feet high).

The path of destruction of the river that plowed through banana trees on the property in front of our house.

Josue's family and friends were a HUGE help in cleaning the majority of the mess and helping salvage items.

On Saturday, President Pepe Lobo and the mayor of our city held a community meeting in the local Catholic church (a stone's throw from our home) to see how to best serve the needs of the families with damaged homes.

Thank the Lord, we are healthy and safe. Storms like we saw could have had much more damaging affects on our lives. The house is still standing--which is a wonderful blessing. But we are in need of repairs as well as a retainer wall to prevent the river from flooding us again. If you are able to help us financially to repair our home, please email me for more information as to how. jmarnold.tmp@gmail.com