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Detroit Flooding 2014
- 1. When you facestormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm; you will not be engulfed in raging rivers. If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs, keep going; you won’t be burned. Because I, the Eternal One, am your God. I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you.
Editor's Notes
- #2 Isaiah 43
- #3 The view from the north lot facing east lot. The Red Run Drain over its banks around 8pm on Monday, August 11, 2014. Warren First United Methodist Church.
- #4 The east lot as the Red Run pours toward the basement. Around 8pm. August 11, 2014. This was the last thing we saw as we left the building, evacuating our Vacation Bible School children and families. Some didn’t make it home, sleeping in the parking lot at Lowe’s with 5 youth or 5 families sharing one house until morning.
- #5 The east entrance after the trustees began pumping the basement after it filled to over 7 feet. Tuesday morning through Wednesday (20 hours of pumping).
- #6 This is looking down the west stairwell near the sanctuary.
- #7 The dark brown line at the top of the third course of glass blocks is the high water line on the north side of the building. Most of the water came inside through this north wall and the east entrance doors.
- #8 The bad news about the region morning commute on Tuesday, August 12.
- #9 The City of Warren declares state of emergency.
- #10 Things start to get a little hairy. Including critters like these that lost their homes or their lives in the flood waters.
- #11 Once the water was pumped from the basement this is what we found—the choir/music suite. The water floated two upright pianos and left them on their backs. Each had to be disassembled and hauled up a flight of stairs to waiting dumpsters.
- #12 This is the multi-purpose storage room for United Methodist Women, Christian Education, Worship, and Records. They all pitched in for two days of cleaning and organizing. It’s a little hard to tell here.
- #13 This is our MCREST rotating shelter storage with our guest towels soaking up the excess water in their storage tubs.
- #14 Here is another view of the MCREST storage area. Carole assured me when I called that everything would be just fine inside. All the shelves are bolted to the walls she said. None of them were. The only way for water to enter this room was around the door jam. It took us an extra day to work our way inside this room because of the table and refrigerator in the foreground that blocked the door from opening.
- #15 Here we have one of the mechanical rooms. This is on the north side where much of the water was coming in as a waterfall shooting about three or more feet into the room. This is where we were when we decided we were leaving the building.
- #16 This is the Arts and Crafts storage area. Sandie Grable keeps this in order and Jim anchored the shelving units and cabinets to the wall for safety and security. Only one kept its anchor.
- #17 This is our community room where scouts and narcotics anonymous meet. You may not notice it right away, but that is a table balanced on a cabinet and chalk board just below the ceiling. It floated up with the water and then landed here and stayed as the water receded.
- #18 Rev. Lisa Cook came by on her day off, along with a few other clergy, to help us untangle and clean out each room. Lisa came from Sanford, Tim came from Chesaning, and Paul came from Royal Oak.
- #19 Doug spent all day Friday working to get water up. His own basement flooded, causing extensive damage. He gave up a day of work on his own home to help his church home.
- #20 The computer lab is a total loss.
- #21 This is the older elementary class room. Wendy teaches in this space and always has a worship center for her students. In the mish-mash of tables, the altar is untouched with the candles and candle holders still perfectly placed on top. This is the room I cleaned out (Pastor Susan) and this is where I began to take notice of little miracles.
- #22 Here is one of the piano boards waiting for the guys to catch their breath after pushing it up the stairs. Then it was into one of the three dumpsters we filled in two days—two 30 yard dumpsters and another 20 yard dumpster. We are waiting for the fourth dumpster to arrive on Monday morning along with a 40 foot storage unit to keep all the cleaned and sanitized furnishings while the basement gets thoroughly cleaned.
- #23 This is Saturday and the never ending process of people moving items to the dumpsters or the cleaning stations. Power washers were going all day long.
- #24 While all this was going on, Pastor Susan was in contact with Melanie Carey and the good people of UMCOR. In cooperation with the City of Warren and Councilwoman Kelly Colegio, over 1300 cleaning buckets were delivered for the communities hardest hit by the flood waters.
- #25 By the end of the day Saturday, District Superintendent Melanie Carey stopped by the church to see how we were doing and to share some of the ways our connection is available for support. She is pictured here with our Lay Leader Paul Sadowski, left, and Trustee Chair Jim Grabel, center. All smiles must be a hopeful sign, right?
- #26 Doug, our Church Council Chair was cleaning the youth room and picked up one of many wooden word signs the youth used to decorate with. He called Pastor Susan into the room to take a look—”Hope” in the midst of all this