A blast of humid air instantly coated the lenses of my glasses with fog as I left the store with my ice tea purchase. That doesn't happen often in the desert. It immediately brought back favorable memories of life in the tropics.
After last night's monsoon storm, which dumped over 9 cm of rain onto Laveen in less than five hours, there is a lot of standing water -- and 70% humidity -- which is quite high for us.
The canal picture above shows where one of the breaches occurred when the ditch was overwhelmed with water creating a rushing river along Dobbins Road. Wanting to check on the building, I had driven to the church meetinghouse on Dobbins once the rain had stopped. No damage -- although the rising water came within one inch of entering the structure.
However, while I was there the water on the street rose rapidly and I was briefly stuck in the flash flood. I'm still not sure how but I managed to maneuver out of it. The fire department ended up rescuing 20 people within a few block stretch of where I was. One traumatized man died after suffering a heart attack during the event. But everyone else is okay. Our car did not sustain any damage. I'm sure that some will be obtaining salvage titles.
This morning I returned on my bike and discovered that part of Dobbins Road, a block east of the meetinghouse, is still closed. Our parking area behind the house has some standing water but is still usable. The animals are all fine.
MasterPiece Church purchased the house and is in the process of getting a special use permit and is remodeling it to be used as an ag-themed child care center. Eventually, we hope to also operate a small school for special needs kids in the community there. We'll use it during the off hours for congregational gatherings and ministries.
