What's Next????

First it was Paul's tooth extraction that didn't go well. Then it was the leak in the kitchen from the overflowing toilet in the bathroom upstairs. Last Sunday our sump pump decided to burn out. We're talking sparks flying out of the breaker box. Today it rained so hard that water is seeping through the walls of our basement (thank God Paul replaced the sump pump). To top it all off...and this is the biggest one of all...we were watching a DVD tonight when at about 11:30 there was a loud knock on our front door. That alone is enough to freak you out, but when you see that it's a cop...well, that just makes it all worse. While I was trying to keep Abby away from the door and trying to turn off the security alarm, the cop informed Paul that there had been a derailment of a train carrying hazardous material and there was a mandatory evacuation of the neighborhood. WHAT THE HELL!!!!!

Photo courtesy of Rockford Register Star

I'm sure by now if you've watched the news you already know about this...114 cars...all carrying ethanol...as of right now 12 cars on fire and they can't control it. Click on the picture to read the story. Everyone within 1/2 mile is being evacuated. The train tracks are approximately 2-3 blocks from our house. There is one road behind us and after that is the trees and the tracks. As of right now, they still don't know the cause of the derailment. The initial speculation is the rain washed out the tracks. That I can believe. We were out to dinner tonight and while we were eating there was a torrential downpour. As we were walking out to the car, the water was up to our knees in the parking lot. We could barely get through the intersection of Sandy Hollow and Alpine to get home, and we crossed those tracks...about 1-1/2 hours before the derailment...and the amount of water was outrageous. We were both saying how we've never seen anything like it.

There were some civilian injuries with some people in critical condition. We don't know for sure, but we're thinking it was the people in the cars waiting at the railroad crossing when the train derailed. The two people on the train are okay. I have heard that there was one death, but that isn't verified.

We're at mom's for the night. We have no idea how long the evacuation is going to last. I guess it depends on how long the fire burns. This is just so weird. It's something you read about on the news but you're not involved in. Below is an eyewitness video.

I'm going to go watch the news a little more then try to get some sleep. I'm supposed to work tomorrow morning, but considering how I didn't bring any change of clothes, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm sitting here in sweat pants and a T-shirt. God, I hope it's not too long before we can go home. I just tonight read an article in one of my magazines about preparing for a disaster and having an emergency kit. We even talked about that we need to do that because you never when when you're going to need to evacuate. How weird is that!!