Jayden and I had planned this day for her, mom, and Grandma to go school shopping. I set out at 8Am to get the babysitter, Megan. By 9, we were headed to Ames. It rained again last night, around 2 inches. Over the past three nights, the rain totaled over 7 inches. I didn’t think much of it as we headed into Ames on the north side. On E-18 we came across our first water over the road east of Pilot Mound. We watched and waited for others to cross before braving it. This was my first indication that this could be an interesting day. Almost to the mall on hwy 69 the road was closed with lots of water across. We followed the heavy traffic out and around Ames and found our way to the mall. I had not idea how bad it was in Ames. The entire city was a flood mess. I found out later Hilton coliseum looked like it was sitting in the middle of a lake. Target was surrounded by water and even Interstate 35 south of Ames flooded and hwy 30. People were stuck, they could not get in or out of Ames on the south side. At the mall, few employees made it there and the majority of the stores were closed. I felt as if we were in the middle of a snow blizzard. The original plan was to have Jayden’s hair fixed in the mall, meet my mom, then head to Des Moines for a fun afternoon of shopping. We decided once we were at the mall we were not leaving. Grandma eventually made her round about way to the mall and joined us. Around 2:30 a main water pipe burst in the city of Ames. Chaos began as people flocked to every store and gas station to buy bottled water. We were at Wal-mart getting school supplies as the people cleared out the water supply. It was like something you would see on television after an earthquake. It was nice to head home the way we came knowing the road was clear and we would be going home to a cool home with power and water. We take this for granted everyday. There are going to be countless homes and business in Ames that are going to have so much loss from these floods. This is going to be devastating for so many. I do believe this flood is worse than the floods of 93.
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