This is a plan of Van Buren. The black arrow points at the location of the First Baptist Church.
And this is what it looked like during the flood.
Tuesday Kathy & I took another load of supplies down to Doniphan Missouri, 437 miles round trip.
Van Buren & Doniphan are both on the Current River. During the drive to Doniphan we were within 10 miles of Van Buren but Doniphan was not ready to receive the supplies Monday, when I went to Van Buren. Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief were setting up a tent kitchen in a Doniphan parking lot. They are planning on turning out 7,000 meals a day.
Going to Doniphan we drove through Ellington, MO. Kathy and I volunteered at Logan Valley Christian Retreat, near Ellington, during November 2011. I spent 3 weeks down there the summer of 2012 or 2013 helping them build a house. While there I worked a lot with Bruce Tremaine. Bruce is a full time self-employed carpenter and the Pastor of a small church in Ellington. We became friends. When we left Doniphan and headed home I tried to call Bruce but didn't get an answer. We decided to drive by his church in case he was working at the church, but he wasn't there. I tried calling again and got Charlotte, his wife. She said Bruce was working and that he would be sad he missed seeing us. On our way driving out of town Kathy said, "Looks, isn't that Bruce?" and is sure was. We stopped and had a good visit with him and his son Lance, who works for Bruce. Bruce told us that he had put sandbags around the doors at the church and siliconed the doors to seal them. He said that no flood water had got into the church other than a little that wicked in through the carpeting. We didn't go out to Logan Valley but we learned that while flood waters did not make it into Dave & Sue's home (the camp owners/operators). The have a dike that protects their walkout lower level. The water did flood their septic area and 3" of "stuff" backed up into their lower level through floor and shower drains.
Yesterday (Wednesday) I thought I better get a little exercise after sitting in a vehicle for over 800 miles on Monday & Tuesday, so I walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill first thing in the morning . I planned on mowing the lawn but riding the lawn mower isn't much exercise. Then it was off to Men's Breakfast & Fellowship for an enjoyable morning of gabbing, eating & studying. While at breakfast I asked Larry Farley, the guy who I helped pour foundations a couple of weeks ago, if he had managed to clear all the mud off the foundations, we have had a LOT of rain after the foundations were poured. He said he had worked many hours on them and was in the process of forming about 80' of a 30" high wall. He hoped to get it poured before the rain started yesterday, it was supposed to start raining at 2 PM. I asked if he wanted some help and he said he would love some. I came home from the restaurant and mowed the part of the lawn that was the tallest and then went to his house. I left about 5:30. Fortunately we only received a few sprinkles during the afternoon. Larry, Billy (Larry's son-in-law) and I were able to finish the forms and pour 5 yards of concrete. Larry was still building forms right up to the minute before Billy & I put concrete in the last section. He still needs to form and pour another 100' of perimeter wall but work we did yesterday will divert any runoff from new rain away from the site. I was POOPED by the time we finished pouring the last of the wall.
Kathy attends a Bible study on Wednesday evenings so we don't eat until late. She came home, grilled some pork chops and soon after eating I went to bed, which is why I am up writing this a 3:30 in the morning 😊.
Kelsey dropped Lydia off about 7:30 yesterday evening so that Lydia could do a "sleep over". Kathy and Lydia were out planting flowers when I went to bed. Andy will pick her up this morning and take her to preschool.
God is good. May He bless you and yours.
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