Wet and Wild, but not fun

I have been on tenterhooks all day since my wife contacted me this morning to alert me to the fact that the Susquehanna river was in the process of rising. Thank God for cell phones! We have been talking all day about the situation as she and our kids have been visiting with my parents across the street from the rising river. In recent memory the river has never risen to the point where my parents' house was ever at risk, but things were looking ominous by midmorning and they began to plan for evacuation. This is no simple task since this is the week for annual cousin's camp at Mom and Dad's where all their grandkids come to spend time together and learn important life lessons from Grandma and Grandpa. Suddenly it became an important question of getting away from the river safely. I don't have all of the details, but I am informed that sometime early in the afternoon every family member's minivan was corralled into service and all 10 grandkids were evacuated with mothers from my parents' house and relocated to my older sister's house in Hallstead, PA. When the final vehicle left it looked like the flooring of the one story house was being covered with the basement already being filled with water. I suspect that a majority of the house will be a loss if only because of mold. Thank God that everyone escaped safely with a minimum of panic. I have never been more proud of my wife as I am in this moment when she kept her head and was able to calmly carry our children and their belongings into our van to escape the rising waters. The plan has always been for me to fly up there tomorrow to drive them back home here in Alabama, but we never anticipated that this difficult series of events would complicate everything. I am just glad that I will be able to get up there soon to help them cope with the situation.
Pray, please, for our neighbors and friends.