In my “About Larry” page, I touched on a story about my life and what our family went through one July night, and I have had a few people ask for the rest of the story. So I thought I would write a more detailed account so you know where my head is at and why I feel everyday carry (EDC) is so very important.
A Night To Remember
On Monday July 28, 1997 my life changed forever, I will never forget the events that happened and they will always change the way I look at life. We were having some of the heaviest rains I had ever seen in the Colorado Front Range, so everything was very very wet. It was about 10:30 pm and my wife and 18-month-old son were sleeping in our home and I was staying up late working on my computer. As I worked at my desk I heard some funny sounds coming from under the house, but at that point I did not give them a second thought. But as I continued working, those strange sounds from under the house kept occuring, they were weird sounds that were just not right! I got up from my desk and looked out the front room window and all I could see was water. I ran to the backyard window and all I saw was lots of water! It looked like there was at least one foot of water all the way around the house. We lived in an area that had high land all around us so it was filling up just like a swimming pool. At this point my adrenaline was beginning to rise and my stress level began to go up.
I woke my wife to tell her the news and we were not quite sure what we should do next. After a brief discussion we decided to stay in our house and wait it out because it had always been our “safe place” and everything would be fine soon. But we knew we needed to get our cars out of the rising water before they got water damage. I went outside and jumped in my Nissan 4×4 Pickup, got it started and moved it to higher ground, just around the corner. With the high ground clearance the water had not done any damage to it yet. Next I went for my wife’s Toyota Hatchback, it was a two-wheel-drive car with low ground clearance so as I opened the drivers door water began to rush inside the car’s floorboard. I was able to get it started and quickly drove it around the corner next to mine before the engine stalled because of the high water. As I walked back toward the house I noticed the water was up to my knees, which was higher then when I first came out.
Surprisingly, the rains continued to come down hard and the water was rising higher and higher. As we waited in our house we noticed that water was seeping through the floor boards of my son’s bedroom and it was then that we decided to leave our home. We gathered our son, 2 dogs and 2 cats and went out the front door, wading through water that was above our knees to get to our vehicles. We put the dogs and cats in the topper, in my pickup so they would be safe and my wife and I went to the gas station behind our house which was much higher in elevation and the water was not there yet.
The Water Gets Deeper
As my wife stayed at the gas station, I walked back to our home around the corner to get a few valuables and move the TV and stereo to higher shelves so that the water would not damage them. As I walked to the front door to enter, the water was now at my crotch and getting harder to move. Once inside the house the water level inside was about one and a half feet up the walls. I was moving things around in the house when I heard this loud buzzing sound from the back porch where the washer and dryer was located and the hair on my legs began to stand straight out on my legs. That stunned me for a minute until I realized that was the water hitting the 220 outlet on the dryer. With electrical current in the water, I decided to get out of the house as fast as I could. As I opened our front door inwards, more water rushed in the house, but as I tried to push the screen door outward it would not move. I had to push extremely hard to get it to move at all and the harder I pushed the more the water pressure pushed me back. So I decided to try and inch my way through the door, I opened it enough to get my right arm and shoulder out the door, then the water pressure pushed it closed again and pinched me there. I pushed harder and slid up to my chest but again the water was rising and the pressure pushed the door harder on my chest. At this point the water pushed back so hard that I was having a hard time breathing, the harder I pushed, the harder it pushed back and it was getting very scary at that point. So I pushed one last time as hard as I could and was able to slide the door off my chest and then a little more until I got through the screen door. I was very happy at that point to be through that door so I could get back to my family.
The Horror Continued
As I was walking through the waste-deep water toward the gas station, I suddenly heard some loud screams from across the street. Looking at the house directly across from me I saw a door wide open and water rushing into the house. The half block of houses in that short block was about six to ten feet lower in elevation then our house and the water pressure was probably much greater then on our side of the road. My only thought was to try and help those people that were screaming, but as I started moving in their direction the water became deeper with every step due to the lower elevation. Soon the water was up to my neck and I still had about 10 feet to go to get to there front door. At that point I had to make a decision, should I try and help those girls, even though I cannot swim and may possibly drowned or should I turn around and move to safe ground. In my mind there was only one answer, I had to turn around, I had a wife and child to think of. That answer killed me because I felt I needed to help them in any way I could.
The End Is Near
As I walked back across the street to the chest-deep water, the footing under the water was getting very slick. The surface I was walking on was grass and the longer it remained wet the slicker it got. Suddenly I got an idea, if I could not swim to save them, maybe I could help pull them to safety through that wet grass. When I got to the gas station I asked the people there if anyone had a rope but all I could find was an electrical extension cord. By this time some neighbors from the other side of the street were yelling and trying to get to safety. I tied one end of the extension cord to a light post and the other end of the cord around my waist, then I waded out in the deep water so I could grab each person as they waded across and helped pull them across that slick footing. I am not sure how many people I helped out of the water but I do know those girls made it across along with many other neighbors in that block. When all those that needed help were safe, I untied myself and took the extension cord back to the gas station. I found my wife and son and we got in my pickup and drove to a friends house across town, that was about 11:30 pm. We left with just the clothes on our backs, no shoes, no extra clothes, no nothing.
Conclusion
We were not able to get back to our house until Thursday, July 31, 1997, some time in the afternoon, that was 3 days later. When we got into our house, we could see the water marks on the walls, we had 7 1/2 feet of water in our house, that’s a lot of water. Yes all was lost! That was a night I will never forget! They said during the peak of the storm that six inches of water fell during 1 1/2 hours, they called it a 500-year-storm.
Why did I bother telling this event to you? A person never knows what kind of events they will be involve in? Please understand I do not expect many people to go through this kind of situation but you never know. A person should ALWAYS be prepared! My family and I walked out of this situation with nothing but the clothes on our backs, not even a pair of shoes! Why? Because we were not prepared! We did not know this was going to happen to us, who could predict this? If a person or a family just thought about the possibility of something like this really happening to them, it might just change their life. They might think of things they would need and be prepared. That’s why everyday carry gear is so very important. EDC on your person, EDC in your backpack, EDC in a Bug-out-bag (BOB) could save your life. If I would have had a BOB in my pickup or a EDC backpack, etc. it might have helped our family in this situation. Having some of your essentials right there with you would make a difference. This is why I started this company, to give you an opportunity to hear my story and maybe think if it happened to you. Think about your preparation and what you might need. So check out my website, my product pages, my posts, and let me know what you think. Give me some feedback. Let me help you be prepared.
If you ever need some help or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you.
All the best,
Larry