Don't know if anyone heard about the flooding in Lodi NY tuesday morning, over 8.5 in of rain fell in 4 hrs. The rain started sometime after midnight. We have a trailer in a campground just above Lodi point and were there for a weeks vac. At 4:30 am we were awaken by the sound of car horns beeping. We went out to see why someone was driving around in the wee hrs of the morning blowing their horn. Due to our ac and fans running inside, we didn't even know that it was raining. . We immediately realized something was up. Our trailer sits approx 20 ft above the creek and the creek was bone dry Monday evening. I told my wife that there is no way that creek could be flooding in that short amount of time but I grabbed a headlamp anyway and walked around the back of the trailer and started down the road to a camper behind ours for a little looksee just in case. I didn't get but a few feet and realized I was standing at the edge of the water. The neighbors camper was gone. I stood there for about 3 minutes trying to digest exactly what in the holy hell I was seeing. In those 3 minutes the water level rose about a foot and a half. I looked at our trailer and realized that we had 5 ft and damn little time to get what we could and get the hell outta dodge. While standing there in disbelief, I caught a glimpse of a camper raging by as well as trees and god knows what else. I could hear the sound of trees snapping in the blackness and other noises that I can't really describe. Now I'm a grown man, 56 to be exact, and I've seen alotta shit in my life but I'm here to tell ya, I was in "f**kin" shock to put it mildly ! I yelled to my wife as I came around the trailer to grab some shit cuz we gotta go now. While grabbing our suitcases, you could hear trees snapping right outside our windows as well as other noises that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. We were out in minutes and positioned the truck with the headlights about 40 yds uphill to watch the carnage. The water rose very quickly. We watched in horror as camper after camper raged by not knowing if anyone was inside. The water surged and picked up my neighbors shed and pushed it into his trailer. At this point the water seemed to be rising very quickly as if something was blocking the flow downstream. The water level was up about 4-5ft on his trailer and the force was unlike anything I had ever seen. We were thinking that any second his trailer would let loose and be gone. At this point the water level was literally at the base of the corner pillar of our trailer. All the while trees are being pushed over and all we could do was hold our breath because of all the trees that are over our trailer and within falling distance. We watched in horror as boats, propane tanks, furniture, sheds etc raged by in the darkness. Just as we thought our trailer was next, the water suddenly receded about 6ft. I said to my wife that whatever was blocking the flow just let loose thank god. Night finally turned to daylight but the rain continued for another 2hrs til it let up. I'm not afraid to tell ya that there was a whole lot of prayin' going on and the good lord spared us. As we walked around looking at the damage you could smell propane in the air from the tanks that were ripped from their sites and floating in the debris which made for a very dangerous situation. We found out that one of the campers that went by had an elderly woman in it and had flipped over and was in the lake. There was an air pocket in the camper and luckily she had her cell phone and called 911 and unbelievably they got her out before her camper sank. There was another family of 5 (3 young children) below us in a rented house that woke to the noise of things hitting the house. The father opened the door and watched as a dock slammed into the house and water rushed into the house. They tied themselves together with rope and climbed into a small inflatable boat they had and tied the boat to the backside of the house. They frantically called for help on their cell phone and were rescued by a man in a canoe. At 7:50 we were told by the rescue crew that came to evacuate us that amazingly there were no fatalities. Amazingly there was heavy machinery there by 8 am and they were clearing the road. Everyone was told they had to leave. One of the rescuers told us that we would be taken to a red cross shelter for a few days and our dogs would be put in kennels. As we packed to leave another rescuer came by and said if we could pack everything in 30 minutes they would have the road open and we could drive out. We packed in record time and by the grace of god were on our way home by 9:00. You can check out local news coverage, they took video using drones of the damage. I would include pictures but need help transferring them on my note 5 if anyone knows how.
