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Friday began as a normal day for me. I came to work, and before very long, the lights began flickering and the internet was cutting in and out, making it difficult to get a story written. I was beginning to feel that this was not going to be an ordinary day as we were getting reports over our scanner of flooding in the county.

After a time I was able to finish the story and go home around 11 a.m. or shortly thereafter. After I arrived at my Race Street condo, the electricity went off for about 15 minutes. I soon noticed the City Police going back and forth out our street toward the Doe River. I learned that people living in the condos at the end of the street were being told to evacuate as well as other residents living near the Broad Street bridge and Doe River. I walked to the edge of my driveway, and that’s when I saw a river of muddy water flowing down the street in my direction. It first flooded the yards and driveways on the north side of the street, and then I noticed the water flowing through a grassy area on our side of the street. The water was moving very fast. Quickly it made its way into our driveway and began spreading out. We were told by a policeman on the scene to evacuate. 

I quickly threw my medicine bottles into a garbage bag along with a couple pieces of clothing and called my sister and told her to meet me at Taco John’s.

By the time I made it out to the street, the water had reached the intersection of Race Street and Sycamore Street, and it was raging.

That was the last I saw of 610 Race Street until about 7 p.m. that day when my neighbor, Lucy Fortner, texted me and said she and George had come back home and the water had receded, except on my side of the driveway. When I arrived home I went around the house and came in the back door and went out to the front. I discovered that the storm drain wasn’t working, and with the help of a broom and snow shovel was able to get it unstopped and get the flood waters flowing through the drain.

After a restful night, I got up Saturday morning to a street covered with about two inches of mud.

My neighbor, Clarence Perry, began moving the mud with a power washer and I began pushing with a snow shovel. Soon, we were joined by neighbor Marilyn Keller’s daughters, Sherry and  Cindy, in addition to my sister, Elaine, and her husband, Phillip, with his power washer. Marilyn sent an SOS out to her church, Elizabethton Alliance Church, and soon, about five or six teenagers and two men showed up with shovels. We shoveled and moved mud with the power washers until about 3:30 or 4 p.m. We were stopped when the storm drain in our parking lot was clogged up with mud, and the water quit flowing. What do we do now?

We were all tired and quit for the day.

Sunday came, and my church, First Free Will Baptist, did not have services because the basement was flooded.

I felt bad because we did not get the mud cleaned from the driveway in front of the lady’s condo beside me, nor in front of mine. But, I knew I could make it if I had to get out, but I worried that she couldn’t. The rescue squad had to rescue her on Friday and take her to Elizabethton High. A friend brought her home late Friday and had a difficult time getting her into the house.

Monday morning came and I was determined to get the driveway cleaned in front of her condo and get the storm drain unclogged. I began praying and making calls. “Lord, just send us some help today,” I prayed.

After lunch Norene Allen and her grandson, Dalton, came with a backhoe with a scraper on it, and Dalton began pushing the mud to the end of the driveway, and Norene went behind him with a push broom.

However, we had to get the storm drain unstopped. I made a call to the Elizabethton Fire Dept. I had called on Saturday and Sunday about washing down the driveway, but with the water problem they were unable to come. I prayed again…and then called the fire department, and without hesitation, the fireman that answered the phone said, “We’ll come. Be at the end of the driveway so we’ll know where to come.”

They were there within minutes and began using the water hose to clear the drain. But, the mud was packed in the drain, which emptied into the millrace. The fireman began asking me about tools, which I knew nothing about, and he suggested calling a plumber….and then I heard him say, “I have a drain auger. I live just over there. Let’s go get it.”

As he and his comrade left, he assured me they would be back.

In a short time they came back – two angels riding in a fire truck! And, guess what…just like that the drain opened up and the water went down. But they used the electric powered drain auger to clean it out well, and then flushed it again with water from the fire hose.

Soon thereafter, it began raining, and washed much of the mud off the pavement…We still have a little bit of mud, but we can deal with it.

Our two to three inches of mud was minor compared to what so many others are faced with. The water did not get into our homes….only covered my bottom step. I later learned the condos located out the street, as well as an apartment building and a house had been without electricity since Friday at noon.

A niece of mine, who lives in the Big Springs area, has had no water, no electricity, and no phone service. My brother, who lives above Hampton High School, had no power or phone service Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I called his wife at work, and she had a neighbor to check on him.

I am blessed as we all are at the Old Mill Stream Condominiums. God sent several angels our way to help us with the removal of the mud and they all worked hard shoveling and removing the mud.

I spent a good part of the day Monday on the phone reaching out for help…and God answered by sending us angels – Norene Allen and her grandson, Dalton, riding in a pickup truck towing a backhoe with a scrapper, and the two firemen in a fire truck – Dalton Williams and Stewart Guess.