Due to the great flood of 2008 my office is now in the middle of the Cedar River instead of just east of it. It has been incredible around here! It is painful to see the homes that have been destroyed and the damage to downtown Cedar Rapids is, at this point, uncertain but I feel sure it will be costly. With every news broadcast I see businesses that I am intimately familiar with that have water all the way up to the top…massive cleanup will be required. I can't even imagine.
My group has been relocated to St. Luke's and though it is chaotic we are managing to get things back up and running. Everyone has been incredible, so patient and helpful. So often IT gets blamed for everything I half expected that our users would blame us for the flood too but I have been so wrong! Everyone has been so helpful.
I talked to one coworker who felt heads would roll at how things were handled but as I have thought about it I completely disagree. You see we had contingency plans in place for disasters just like this and we implemented them but from one who was there regardless of how much you plan that is all it is, a plan. The plan is a guideline to help you keep on track but it has to be dynamic just in light of the simple fact that no one, no matter how gifted in planning can fully predict how bad a situation really will be until after the fact. As the saying goes, hindsight is twenty-twenty.
It is easy to criticize and find fault when you look back but in the heat of the battle decisions have to be made dynamically as the situation demands and often times it is not according to plan but according to necessity. Keep this in mind: It is good, it is right, indeed it is a requirement to be prepared, to have a plan and not just for business but for our personal lives as well. But with every plan you have to be willing to modify on the fly. Our best laid plans can come unraveled if we are so set on following the rules heedless of how the disaster plays out.
Be prepared but be ready to change as the circumstances dictate. I am so very proud of the entire effort of my coworkers! They have bent over backwards in getting things done and I applaud their efforts I wish all of you could have been here to see how hard everyone has worked.
Above all, in all things trust God. Even in the in midst of a flood that has inundated the area of our five hundred flood plain, YES that is correct: our FIVE HUNDRED YEAR flood plain, (Mercy Hospital was flooded and it sits over ten blocks away from the river! Ten blocks AWAY from the river!
It is simply incredible, unimaginable in fact. I know the pictures have been seen around the U.S. if not the world, do not do the scene justice at all, not at all.
I have heard time and time again that even in the flood of 1993, which were devastating even considered a hundred year flood, was nowhere near as bad as the current flood.
I am thankful for the fact that we are far enough away that our home was not affected by the devastation but I know that a tornado could come through as we had a couple weeks ago just north of us in Parkersburg, and destroy what we have, but I am reminded that God in in control and all we have belongs to Him and not to me.
So we continue to pray for those affected by this flood and we continue to be grateful for all that God has given to us for we know it is all from Him and it can all be taken from us by Him at anytime and in any way.
Thank you, Lord for all You do and all You have given to use. Please be with those who have lost homes or even livelihoods. Help this to be the event that will point many to You.
Amen.
Good bye and the Lord watch over and keep you in the shelter of His wings.
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