Last month I was sleeping peacefully at 3:30 in the morning when I heard people screaming and shouting at my neighbors house. I lay in bed for a minute trying to hear what they were yelling and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. The screaming showed no sign of abating so I quickly jumped up and rushed downstairs to see what was happening. I opened my door and stared in shock at the raging river that was rushing between my house and the neighbors houses. My neighbors screamed for me to pick up as much as I could from the first floor of my house and then to try to get over to where they were. I immediately grabbed Porky (my hedgehog) and brought him upstairs. On my second trip I grabbed my running shoes and before I knew it the water was rushing into my house and I couldn't even get back to my front door to try to shut it. I called my neighbors to tell them that I was stuck in my house and could not get out because the water was too high and moving too quickly. The water was rapidly rising and began splashing onto my second floor (there are only 4 steps up onto my second floor so it's not quite as crazy as it sounds). The current was incredibly strong and I saw motorcycles being swept away, a dead cow, and my neighbors washing machine rushing past my house. I had never seen a flash flood before and had no idea what to do, how long the water would last, or how high it would rise. I grabbed my phone to call Peace Corps and let them know that I was in trouble in case anything serious happened. PC immediately reacted (thanks Phanuthat!) and called the Nayoke (similar to a mayor) to see what was going on and if they could get me help. Next thing I know the Nayoke is sending a boat of soldiers to try to rescue me from my house. A few minutes later I got a call from the soldiers telling me that the water was flowing too quickly around my neighborhood and no one could get in or out, even on a boat. They told me to wait it out on my second floor, and not to enter the water. I told them not to worry about me and that they should assist the elderly and children before helping me. For some reason I was oddly calm (or at least that's how I remember it) and skyped with my family as I collected some water bottles, some oatmeal, and settled down to wait out the flood, hoping that it subsided quickly. About an hour or two later the water level was slowly going down and people began to emerge from their houses. Hundreds of soldiers showed up to offer assistance and get everyone to safety. My front door was blocked by a motorcycle that had washed away from someone's house and there was debris everywhere. I walked through about 1.5 feet of water full of debris to get to my neighbors with my emergency bag packed since we were told it might flood again. I only suffered a few scrapes/gashes and some bruises. Unfortunately not everyone was as lucky as I was. One woman died from a tree that collapsed on her house during the flood and many more were injured trying to get themselves or their vehicles to safety.
Most things on my first floor were damaged or lost as they were swept out of my house, but I am thankful that nothing else happened. For my villagers, the flood had a much greater impact. Some people lost nearly everything in their homes as well as the fields that they make their living growing rice and corn in. Countless chickens, pigs, and cows were killed which was a major blow to some villagers.
The mud left behind was unbelievable. The mud in my house covered my ankles, and trying to walk between houses was impossible with shoes on as the mud sucked them right off our feet. Everyone soon banded together and people from all over showed up to help. Soldiers came by with a fire truck to hose out our houses and helped carry things back that had been swept away. The Red Cross showed up with bags of rice, canned food, ramen noodles, and bottled water. I spent 3 weeks without a refrigerator, 1 week with no running water, and still don't have any chairs. I stayed at my neighbors house for the first week after the flood, sharing a bed with my host sister. That entire week every time it started raining at night we both lay awake in the dark preparing for another flood and praying that it didn't happen. One of my coworkers left her house that night and has yet to come back. She found another house to rent and had friends and family collect her belongings because it was too traumatic. Others are talking about moving and finding higher ground to build houses on. No one was prepared for this since my village hasn't flooded for 18 years. During that flood 18 years ago the water rose much higher, but it didn't move as swiftly so in some ways it was less scary and caused less damage.
It's now about one month later and things are pretty much back to normal, or as normal as they can be after what happened. We're still walking on pieces of wood artfully arranged between the houses to get around, and are constantly wary of more flooding. However, the kids are back at school, the adults are back at work, we're eating actual food again and are back to our regular routines.
None of these pictures can capture what it was like during the flood, and my camera died after one photo so I didn't actually get any in my house while it was happening, but they give you a decent idea of what the aftermath was like.
