Noah's Ark- quite literally!

Days #60-61

Friday morning was just another friday morning. I headed in at 8.30 for the morning devotions then it was back to work. As it was my last day today was making sure camp activities were sorted and then some other jobs to help around the office.

I have really enjoyed working at the church and being apart of the Helderberg Academy. The work atmosphere is good and the work we do is making a difference so it's always going to be enjoyable. I have really enjoyed working there as it has given me a great insight to what church ministry work looks like behind the scenes.

Friday afternoon before heading home I went to check out the bug mall they have there. Had a good look around and even had a go in the arcade.

NOTE: At this point it had been raining for an hour or so (hint).

Back home I chilled for a bit, played some squash, watched some TV series and enjoyed some good dinner. At 7 I was planning to head into the town to meet up with Beth and some of the other guys from church and have a chilled movie night.

It was still raining at this point but being from the North-West of England I thought nothing of it. I got to the first set of Robots (the term here for Traffic Lights) and took a right up a big hill. I was cruising along quite happily then all of a sudden THUD! The road was covered with bricks from a collapsed wall due to the rain. The journey then turned into a game, dodge the bricks as the road was covered with them.

After getting past the brick mine field I headed down a steep hill towards Beths. At this point the water had collected at the bottom and there was no way i was getting through, the water was too deep! I turned round and tried an alternative route but driving past I saw a car stranded in the middle of the street sunken in the deep waters.

I took the decision I wasn't going to make it. So I turned round but i was quite concerned because at this point the floods were getting even higher. The traffic was packed. It was dark. The rain was coming down hard! So I sent up some prayers to the bug guy upstairs and trusted him to help me and the little unreliable blue golf to get through the floods. We made it. After passing once again through the brick mine field I eventually made it back to the safety of home.

Headed back into my room, climbed into bed and began to watch more of my new favourite TV series; Suits! (I definitely recommend it).

It was around 10 O'clock when things started to change. My attention was distracted from my laptop screen as suddenly a lot of noise came from outside my room and a lot of knocking on my window. Luke was at the door and he seemed to be in an urgent hurry.

Bruce, knowing the floods were getting worse, had called an elderly couple (George and Avrill) who he knows lives in the deepest area to check if everything was ok. It wasn't good news. George had been coughing up blood and needed to get to Hospital ASAP. However there was two main problems; one, the hospital had started an full evacuation due to the floods as the Hospital began to fill up so they were busy and couldn't respond immediately to an ambulance call. Second problem is that the floods at this point were too deep and strong currents for the couple to drive out and for Bruce to drive in and pick them up.

(Look up floods in Somerset West Cape Town on Google and you will find photos from the hospital, mad!)

Therefore we needed some sort of small boat or something to get past the deepest area of the flood and get George to a car to get him to Hospital. However, we didn't know anyone with a small boat or something so there was only one thing we could do, we had to take Bruce's big boats down into the town. This boat isn't small.

So going back to me in bed watching Suits...

I was quick to jump out of bed, throw on some clothes and head out to help. After moving my car out the way to get the boat out we headed in.

Crazy! I have never witnessed flooding before so this was crazy. The roads had been replaced my rivers and houses were suffering the results. Cars were floating and half sunken under the waters. We got in as deep as the car could go and took the boat of the trailer. The water was about up to my waist.

But because the boat had no petrol we couldn't power it up so instead we attached lots of ropes around it and pulled it through the waters. This is about 10.30 at night. We got to the crossroads where we had to go up a road to Georges house but by this point the current was too strong and deep for us to pull this boat up under control. So myself and one of Bruce's friends made our way up the river and found our way to Georges House.

When the couple opened the door the water was already up to their knees as they walked around there own house. We decided that the main road was to strong of a current to take george down so I went to try and find another solution. After knocking on one of the neighbours doors asking if she could open her garden gate so we could take George over one of the security walls avoiding the main currents she turned me down as she said by opening that gate would mean more water coming into her house. She was already walking in water up to her knees at this point so it would of made much difference. Anyway I respected her wish and asked if it would be okay for us to lift him over the gate then over the security wall.

We managed to walk George to the house. George reminded me a lot of Granddad Doug at this point, he had an attitude as if nothing was wrong with him and he was perfectly fine, love that about Granddad Doug. Then with aid of a step ladder we got him and his wife over the garden wall then over the security wall to where the boat was waiting.

Then we encountered another problem, once we got them in the boat we realised that the plugs for the bottom of the boat were missing with the rush so the boat was a lot heavier and we couldn't take it as far up the road as before. But instead we improvised and carried the couple to the car and then an ambulance with perfect timing picked them up.

It was just like Noahs Ark in the floods but with a modern twist.

It was a crazy, exciting, adrenaline pumping experience. This experience has now allowed me to relate with stories of flooding in the UK and across the world; it's tough!

But its good how you see canoes paddling down the street, people out helping each other and 6 people pulling a large boat with an elderly couple in it down an ordinary road.

After they had left the boat myself and Luke helped some guy we found stuck in his car out of the car then we loaded up the boat and headed home. It was around midnight at this point.

It was a crazy experience. Wish I had photos to show you guys but thought best not to bring it as I was swimming at one point.

Came home had a shower, had some Ice Cream (Don't really know why was just in the mood for some Ice Cream) .

Saturday morning; it was still raining. Me and Luke headed in to take some photos but the flood had died down a lot in the morning so we were quite disappointed.

Later that afternoon I headed in to go to a games afternoon with some of my friends from the church then we headed to the mall to see Thor 2.

Driving back was a worry again as it was still raining and I didn't want a repeat of last night. So I took an extended route which was a bit of a risk as it involved driving through a township area which is not recommended to drive through at night but I took the risk as i thought who will be out to mug me when its raining? Anyway, I made it home safely. Praise the Lord!

Later that night we headed into to the local village/township just down the road. They had all been evacuated from their shacks as there was a fear the Dam was going to burst which would wash away the whole village. All the people were gathered in a community centre and people from everywhere were bringing old clothes, food, blankets... so we dropped of some old clothes and food then headed to check out the overflowing river before heading home.

It has been a crazy two days. The rain hasn't stopped and it has really given me a sense of natures power and destruction. The Lord has blessed me and this family to keep us out of danger and give us the tools to help people. I am really thankful for that.

God Bless.