Flood

The first week was a success. There were some challenges and staff is going to get better each week, but overall, it was wonderful. Parent day was smooth and the staff meeting was organized and filled with laughter and lots of proud smiles.

P&S are getting married tomorrow. They met at camp in 2009 and were co-program directors last year.  They got engaged right before staff training last year and I can’t think of two people who I enjoy more. They are an amazing couple and I have had their wedding on my calendar since they booked the church last July.

All the return staff and I were invited to the wedding and would be gone this weekend, a lot of people also planned to leave for the weekend since camp would be pretty empty. After the staff meeting, people quickly gathered backpacks for the weekend and headed off for some rest. I’d planned on leaving as quickly as I could so I could get home and run some errands and then go out to dinner with my boyfriend. My mom had driven to camp to spend the weekend with my dogs so that I wouldn’t have to drag them back to the city.

Everything was falling into place. And then, right after the meeting, Program Director M returned to camp from a doctor appointment in town and let us know that the water was getting even higher and the lake was going to flood the roads. I called the sheriff who confirmed that the water was going up (probably a foot by the end of the weekend) and I realized that if I left, I might not be able to get back to camp.

Camp property is on a peninsula and if the water goes over the road, it will be an island. I REALLY wanted to go to the wedding and I was excited to see my boyfriend, have a weekend away from camp and I didn’t know what to do. The camp director from across the lake stopped by and we discussed the impending flood, canceling camp for the following week (it hadn’t occurred to me until he said it) and how crazy it was.

I started feeling a little panicky and really unsure of what to do. I didn’t want to miss the wedding, but I didn’t want to get stuck and not be able to get back to camp. I called my best friend X to talk it out and finally decided not to take the risk. I sent my mom home (I felt terrible because she’d just arrived, but I didn’t want her to be trapped!), I called my boyfriend to break the bad news and called two board members to debate what to do.

There were 7 of us left at camp and we got in the van and headed for town. There were notices posted on the doors and windows of the grocery store and every other business in town alerting people that the lake was rising quickly. The road into town was covered in water but cars were still able to drive over it. The alert said the water was going to go up another FOOT over the next week. Another foot would cover the road, as well as our camp road (turning us into an island) and would mean that a lot of camp would be under water.

The staff meeting ended at 3:30 pm and everything was perfect in life. By 7pm this evening, I’d made the decision to skip the wedding and my whole weekend, cancel camp next week and be stuck at camp as the whole town flooded. I’m shaking my head in disbelief and I don’t know how this happened. I’m not sure if I am being dramatic and everything will be fine by tomorrow and I will be crabby that I skipped the wedding for no reason, or if the water is going to keep rising and I will be crabby that camp is flooding. It seems like a no-win situation and I’m not really sure what to expect these next few days. I didn’t expect this at all.

June 25

On Saturday morning, we walked around camp with a yard sick and took pictures of the water. Overnight, the lake had risen over 9 inches and I couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like in a few days, and I couldn’t begin to comprehend what it would be like by the time it was expected to crest next Friday (8 days after it started rising).

This week of camp (June 24-29) was very low enrollment and last week I was shaking my head and wishing I could cancel the week and move the registered kids to other weeks. Even giving three staff members the week off, we were going to have almost as many staff as campers and I wasn’t happy about it. But on Saturday afternoon as the water continued to rise, calling all of the parents to tell them I was cancelling the week was WAY worse than running a small week. I was relieved to reschedule ALL of the kids that week. I only refunded two tuitions because two kids that session were registered for two weeks this summer and they couldn’t pick a different second week.

Everyone was incredibly nice, offering prayers, encouragement and asking if they could volunteer to help clean up once the water receded. As the staff and I have toured camp every few hours, measuring the rising water, I have been using their kind words to stay strong and avoid panicked “what-ifs”.

I am trying to see the positive- I didn’t want to run a week with such low enrollment and I was able to reschedule everyone. It will probably end up being a financial gain in the long run.

Everything is going to be fine. I regret not going to the wedding, because I probably could have still made it back to camp on Sunday, but it’s not the end of the world. Everything is going to be fine.