the mall

wednesday march 31 was a rough day.
as always, the day started with emails, facebook and the morning news. keeping myself informed...
as the day went on, i felt like i was on a roller coaster of news. apparently, tuesday's mall evacuation in warwick was not because the parking lot and surrounding walls had poor drainage and therefore water had collected from the crazy rains dumping 16 inches of water. no, it wasn't that. the dam on the neighboring river had broken and the river had flooded the area.
so wednesday, i spent hours trying to coordinate getting customers' Easter pics to a different portrait studio and figuring out how to communicate the changes to everybody who needed to know. pain in the neck but not devastating...
then pics of the mall started showing up - on my email, on facebook, on the news...
could that be the mall?? and the hotel i stayed at a couple of weeks ago? omg. the water is 5 feet deep. the mall is an island and there's no way in. based on what i see in the pics, there is also no way back to normal.
on a much smaller scale, i can understand Katrina in a new way. the big losses, the small losses - all losses hurt. i am, like everyone else, grateful that no lives were lost. which leaves me focusing on the other losses... a way of life, a way to make a living and provide for families, homes, memories, vehicles, roads... hard to fathom. my thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are suffering from these floods. may they all find a bridge over these troubled waters...