When I talked about the Monsoon season as nonexistent in my last column I would never have thought we would see the rainfall we did last week. I love a good rain storm but that was just a downpour I have not seen in my lifetime living here.
Over the weekend I heard about the remains of a hurricane coming up from the south but I didn’t prepare myself for what was to come. I woke up that Monday morning to a rain storm, put my gym clothes on and headed to the gym. Working out I noticed the rain kept getting heavier which at the time I was not too concerned.
I left the gym and I headed home to get ready for work. I walked through the door and Gina said that our backyard was flooding and the water was rising pretty quick. I rushed to the door to look out to the backyard. The rain would not let up so we started to place towels at the door to stop the water in case It made it higher.
I was really getting concerned when water was starting to flow slowly in so I rushed to Goodwill to get more towels. Goodwill wasn’t opened yet but the man up front was nice to let me come in and get towels after I showed him a video of what I was facing.
Leaving Goodwill I started to head to the house when I got a text from Gina saying that it was really coming in now. I turned around and made my way to Ace Hardware to get sandbags. Ace was almost out but I managed to grab the last of what they had. I left Ace to an even a heavier downpour and I literally yelled “Oh, come on would you please stop, already?” Palisades was like a river and there was no end in sight for the rain.
I arrived home to find both bedrooms with about say an inch of water and it was starting to reach the hallway. Gina and I rushed out front to start filling the sandbags when my prayers were answered and the rain was finally starting to slow down.
Luckily the rain didn’t go any further than the bedrooms and we got lucky as the storm was never as intense as the earlier one was. I was worried because there was talk of a stronger storm on its way. We did get a big storm that evening but I had the sandbags up and ready this time. The storm didn’t do any flooding like earlier so I was thankful for that.
We had our floors Air Vacced that day and luckily our place has all tile so we didn’t have to worry about any wet carpet smell or mildew but it was an intense morning, one I will never forget. It is a crazy year indeed when it comes to weather in the valley.
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I want to congratulate the staff of The Fountain Hills Times. The ANA convention was this past weekend and your award winning weekly newspaper took home 8 more awards to add to the collection. Duke Kirkendoll was awarded first place for best promotion ad layout as well as second place for best classified section layout. We were also awarded first place for best Public Notice section.
We were awarded third place for Reporting and Newswriting excellence. Editor Ryan Winslett was awarded third for best headline use and second for best column, feature or criticism. Barb Charzuk was awarded third for best feature photograph and the company got third for best feature photo layout or photo story. I want to thank my staff for all their hard work and we thank Fountain Hills for all your support.
