somebody throw out a life preserver…

zengrrl

So I’m sure with the endless news streams the last few days, you’ve heard about the flooding in the Midwest. As I grew up in Wisconsin, and even just recently spent several months there, this devastation courtesy of Mother Nature just boggles my mind.

I have a close friend who had to evacuate her family from their life-long home as the water suddenly rushed and filled their first level garage/basement and rushed towards the second level living area. I have another friend who is up there, valiantly trying to help out and reporting from the front lines.

Lake Delton, which I grew up visiting every summer with my gramma, is gone. It rose so high so fast that it carved its own path to the nearby Wisconsin River and emptied into it. It’s now a mud pit. I can’t even fathom a whole lake just up and disappearing.

DNR says it’ll be August or later before it can be filled again, leaving scores of businesses in the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton area that count on the lake to bring in tourists high and dry for the summer, as well. Hundreds of people, who count on this annual summer tourist season to make 75% or more of their income for the year, now have no jobs at all.

And I’m sure it’s the same elsewhere throughout the Midwest states. And to compound problems, many people who’ve lost their homes and everything they own do not have flood insurance because insurance companies refused to write them policies for it.

So, even though we’re all dealing with the tribulations of higher gas and food prices, and the like, please consider this weekend forgoing that father’s day present or expensive dinner and giving that cash to the Red Cross. These are fellow Americans, and, more importantly, fellow human beings, who need your help now more than ever.

I’m sure dad will understand.

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