Who would have thought????

Sunday afternoon we were expecting a storm ~ and a big one at that. Anyone who did not live under a rock knew it was coming. I had done some baking, and living along the coast had a small list prepared of things to take should we be evacuated ~ yes that's right evacuated. Well we got the phone call urging residents to leave NOW before it got bad. I did what any sensible mama would do ~ packed up my kids, clothes, etc and fled to my mama's :) I'm smart right??? Sunday evening was relatively quiet. The kids were excited to be at mame's house. :) Daddy met us there and we settled in for the night. Monday morning mom was going to go to the gym at 5am. Instead because Sam thought it was funny to wake up and play every 2 hours as the pack-n-play was RIGHT next to the pull-out she decided not to. We are glad that she didn't as this was at the end of the driveway:
Yes - that's right - This is a GIANT hole at the end of the driveway. One that in the dark would not have been seen and she would have fallen into with the car. It's about 2 feet deep! Now where my parents live is in the MIDDLE of a hill. A hill that is feared by many ~ including snowplow drivers. We have 'lost' our driveway many times before ~ but never 2 feet down. I wake up my suburianite husband and send him out to investigate. Yeah I know. The culvert is plugged solid. We call the town and they eventually sent someone out to put a barrier up so that no one drives off into it. The road is JUST wide enough for 2 cars normally. And then it starts to happen as the rain keeps falling....

Our 1st chunk that falls off

And then a whole lot more!

At this point people are STILL driving up and down the road.

From up on top of the hill where the water is coming from. So the town comes again and 'closes' the road. Unfortunately people STILL drive up and down it and the water is STILL taking out the gravel underneath the tar. So we call the town AGAIN and they said 'do whatever you have to in order to keep it safe'

So with a sledge hammer my wonderful husband starts cracking away the tar that's just hanging there - notice it's above his knees!

Looking down over the hill - where the barricade is he blocked off the road with small trees - that people drove over anyway

My handy work with trees at the top of the hill :)

More of D trying to knock down pavement - notice the large crack! People were driving right on the edge of it!!!! A good look at down the hill

A view of my parents house from the bottom of the hill . Now thru all this my parents lost their power. Great ~ not only are we stuck here ~ but we have no power. Not fun with 2 small kids. So we did what any parents would do ~ we called D's parents and said "rescue us please" and so D's dad came in the 4-wheel drive and rescued us. Who would have thought we'd have to be rescued from safety???

The next morning a neighbors started hauling in bucketloads of gravel to the other side of the road to widen it into the woods. My parents mailbox has been removed so that there is an actual road and people can pass by. A welcome site for some to see they can go up and down the road again.

We returned to the beach Mon night to a house that never lost it's power, and the town overall was it great shape...hrm... Now if this storm would just pull away....

Will post pic's of the re-building of the road later ~ hopefully tonite we can go retrieve our vehicles :)