Last night the “remnants” of Hurricane Erin came through Oklahoma, directly through El Reno. We got 7-1/2 inches of rain in 5 or 6 hours. Our electricity went out about 1 am and didn’t get restored until about Noon.
Mom, who’s got a bladder infection now added to her escalating neuropathy symptoms, was in great pain all night, and I slept even less than she did, maybe an hour total.
At some point, I got up to try to identify some banging from outside, which I never did, but I did discover the living room ceiling leaking.
And we were lucky. My friend James at JMBzine links to some of the horrible news stories (and some pictures) from the storm, including the drowning death of three women in one family, relatives of Kiowa chief Billy Horse. Today, CNN and other cable news stations were showing the flooding in Kingfisher, just north of El Reno.
Noting the nearby flooding, my brother said that El Reno can handle water runoff better than any town he’s ever lived in. Frankly, he hasn’t lived in all that many towns, and maybe he said more than any town he’s ever seen (we were in the emergency room of the hospital with my mother, so forgive me for being unclear) but he has lived in El Reno a long time and drove a truck around the Southern Plains for years, so I’m going to trust him on this one — for one very important reason: I have now found something to like about El Reno.