Weekend From Hell: Flood!!! (Video Included)

Worst. Weekend. Ever! It wasn't enough that my 3-year old kept me up unto 3 a.m. Friday morning with a surprise stomach virus. Or that she then gave it to me and had me sacked out in bed all day on Sunday. OR that my husband was away for all of this. Mother Nature had to have her say, as well.

The Noreaster that hit NJ this weekend caused flooding the likes of which I've never seen in my town. Now, I've been living in downtown Bloomingdale on and off since 1995 and though the Pequannock River runs just across my street, it has never (in my memory) flooded to the point where streets were shut down and people EVACUATED on Sunday.

So, first me and my girls were stuck in our apartment because we weren't allowed to drive on any of the streets surrounding it, which was just fine with me. Then we're ordered to get out; not what one wants to hear when the most energy that an be mustered is to pull the blankets higher when a fever has one shivering, aching, and nauseated.

I scrambled to get my two kids and four cats out safely up the street to my parents' house, which is 20 feet above street level and held up by a cement retaining wall -- only to find that they too are evacuating and we all have to hit a hotel for the night.

On top of all that, my husband has to be picked up that evening at the airport. Stress, lack of sleep, and sickness are not the best combo for doing anything, let alone driving, so thank goodness my dad was able to get him for me -- just in time to hear that the 300-foot wall of water that was supposed to hit town never came, but not whether the roads around our house were open yet. Then my 11-year-old isn't feeling so good Monday morning...

The following is a video I found on YouTube that shows the extent of the waters before the evac. This was filmed right where I live, starting behind my daughter's daycare (across the street from my house) and up to where my parents live. Un-freaking-believable. Good news is no damage to my house or my parents' -- can't say the same for many of my neighbors, though.