May day floods!

We woke up this morning to a big mess. It rained well over 7 inches and close to 8 by noon today. In a short amount of time we had lots of water and no where for it to go. I listened to the scanner this morning and new fast that it was rough out there. They closed two major 4 lane highways today and at one time my town was basically an island with no way in and no way out. My grandparents live in a flood plane. A branch of a major creek runs next to them. They have seen their faire share of floods. Probably any other time in the past they would have just waited the rising water out. But with papa's health the way it is and no longer having a big truck they looked for ways out. The biggest problem was the water rose fast and strong. A pickup had gone off the road and had stranded people in the rising water. My grandparents flagged down the rescue boat. As they left the water was less than an inch from getting into their house. They've had many times where the water has creeped up the driveway, inched a the back door and has a few times entered into their utility room but it has never gotten into their house. We waited out the afternoon for the water to go down enough to get to the house. Though we all feared the water would have gotten into the house, leaving a huge mess, it did not. We cleaned up a mucky muddy nasty mess out of the utility room. We're expecting more rain tomorow and some parts of town are still underwater. My grandparents are sleeping in their own bed in their house though with only minor water damage this evening.

The first time I drove up my grandparents road this is what I saw. The black dodge is what essentially got a rescue boat to them. Dad said when he first got there the water was up to the mirrors. It is still raining in this photo and the water is moving really fast. It washed out many parts of the road. You can see the water is right up under the mailboxes and the further one has grass under it where the water rushed through.
The little yellow house on the left is my grandparents rent house. It was their first house when they moved into the country and my great papa lived there. It is two bedroom one bath. My grandparents house is just beyond the yellow house.
You can kind of see how fast the water is moving and how high it got. This is a typical fence and only the top few strands are above water. Typically there is NO water here. It normally is a dry creek bed where cattle graze.

This is my mail box. The water was over my road and I've not seen that happen before. My poor flower bed!

It did seem to go down fast in town this morning, but it left quite the mess.