Funnel Clouds, Finals, Floods, and Foreign Travel

April showers brings...

Severe weather and floods!

The first week of May was finals. Finals is always a stressful time, but this semester there were some added worries. First off we had a lot of storms and rain in April and the Mississippi was headed toward historic flooding, with the potential evacuation of the neighborhood where I live. I was also set to travel to Belize just after finals for my SVOSH trip. The river was scheduled to crest while I was away.

The night before our first final there was some severe weather. School lost power and it hadn't been restored by the time our final was scheduled, so the school played it by ear and kept postponing the final. We ended up taking it 5 hours after it was scheduled! The rest of the week was spent taking finals on schedule and wondering/worrying about having to evacuate our apartment.

After my last final on Friday I was running last minute errands to get items that I would need for my trip. When I got home Allison informed me water was creeping up to the back of our apartment! We decided we would still have our post finals party (damn-it we had a stressful week we were going to relax!) And a good time we all had!

(A brief explanation: Allison and I don't have a wine bottle opener, so we are often coming up with innovative ways to drink wine. This particular party we used a screw, screwdriver and a hammer. It was a group effort and worked pretty good, but Allison's boyfriend and I both ended up getting her a wine bottle opener for her birthday!)

Saturday was spent flood proofing the apartment. My desk was on the bathroom counter, all living room furniture was on the kitchen island, the dining room table was put on cheap chairs, my wardrobe was put on cinder blocks and random items were put on extra shelving. It was a long day and a late night.

The next morning Allison and Penny took Anna and I to the airport as we were headed to Belize. Allison and Penny spent the week at a friends house, waiting out the flood. Fortunately our apartment did not flood, but sadly some of the neighborhoods around ours did.