[1]
Psalm 37:5 American Standard
Version—margin
5 Roll thy way upon Jehovah;
Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass.
Three weeks ago, Nancy[2]
phoned us distraught. “Hospice told me that Linda will die today!” We were
threading our way through the mountains and canyons of southeastern Utah. She
had caught us in a spot where we actually had phone coverage. We all knew that
this day was coming. Nancy’s little sister had not been eating or drinking for
over a week. She wasn’t responding to anybody.
“We’re so sorry,” I said. “Please let us know when you plan
a memorial service. We’ll be there,” I promised. Later the date was set for
September 10.
As the date
approached, I kept an eye on a Pacific hurricane called Kay. Unlike almost all
of the Pacific hurricanes that tend to pass safely out to sea in the Pacific
Ocean, Kay had turned and started going north. On Friday, September 9, Kay had
slowed down enough to become a tropical storm but still carried strong winds and
lots of rain. Since Nancy’s home is in Yuma Arizona, about 250 miles from us,
we left home about noon on Friday. By this time the storm was starting to
splatter our car as we drove east on I-10. It was enough to slow traffic
leaving for the weekend, and for about an hour we endured the stop and go.
As we turned south to go along the coast of the Salton Sea,
the sky became downright menacing. We had rolled our way upon the LORD when we
started. We trusted that He would protect us we entered a terrific downpour.
Suddenly my phone barked into life. “This is an alert. This region is in a
severe storm area. It is in danger of flooding. You should not be driving
unless you are evacuating or fleeing the flood. Take cover immediately.” Then about five or ten miles down the road. We
got another such amber alert. And later another, and another.
The rain was not as bad as when we drove through tropical
storm Elsa, but it was a lot worse than we normally see in southern California.
We pulled off at a truck stop about half way down the massive Coachella Valley.
We had to ford a swiftly flowing river of muddy water to get into the stop. We
rested about a half-an-hour there and ate a cinnamon roll. Then cautiously we
drove back through this tan river and onto the highway.
We reassured ourselves in the knowledge that we were in the
Lord’s hands, and we drove on carefully. So far Kay was no match to tropical
storm Elsa, that we had driven through in northern Florida on July 7, 2021. The
trip took us a little over 5 hours. Nancy was extremely relieved to see us. She
had three friends coming from the San Diego area. They had phoned and said that
Kay had washed out a stretch along I-8, and a boulder had run into a car
driving along there, so they had turned around and gone back home.
Thank You, Lord,
that we can trust You when the going gets dicey.
[1]
https://watchers.news/2022/09/09/tropical-storm-kay-considerable-flooding-possible-in-the-southwest-u-s/ Yuma Arizona is just a little southeast of
the “o” in “San Diego” on the satellite image that was taken on the same day,
September 9, 2022. We were driving through Coachella Valley to get there.
[2]
As per request names have been changed, but the events are true.
