Orange cats and I were naturally house bound during the flooding of Nongkhai province. I couldn’t believe that the water level would become ferocious with brownish looking flooding around the house. The whole ground floor was inundated with flood during the night. I woke up feeling very disappointed that the floodwater didn’t respect our space. There were still some gadgets and things which were left in the kitchen as we didn’t expect the flood would be so high. I was afraid that the rising water would eventually drown all these items. But I still had some time to get some help with moving these belongings.
This was the first time I was grounded by unexpected fierce flooding. There was nothing one could do but wait patiently for the flood to subside. The heavy rain in the night didn’t help with lowering the water level. But the rising water and strong current did wash away all the earthworms and scorpions. The water supply had been cut off until the flood level became lowered. So I had to wade the flood water into the back of the house trying to turn off the tap water lever.
The water was too opaque for me to see the position of the tap water lever under twelve inches of flood. So I had to search for the water pipes and levers with my hand under brownish water. I could locate the right lever in two minutes. But I had to go through cold flowing water about the height of my waist to reach the backup water tank. This area was usually covered by tall grasses and weeds. So, it was very difficult and confusing trying to locate the small red tap under the sheet of brownish water.
There were black scorpions, big and small, perching on the cement rainwater tanks nearby. I had to try to avoid touching the cement tanks lest I would disturb these black scorpions. I took me more than ten minutes and three tries before I almost gave up. I couldn’t see the water pipes under the water, and my hand would be grabbing plants and other things in the water. I tried a few times to calm down, it’s getting dark very fast and the water was getting higher and colder by the minute. I felt a chill and realised how good swimmer could get clamped in cold water.
I tried to recall the positions of the water pipes and all the three levers. I gave up once and walked towards the house. But I told myself to make my last effort. I was afraid of catching a snake in my hand! This time I decided to follow all the water pipes with my hand, one by one. The last pipe took me to the correct lever for turning on the backup water. It was such a relief to have running water in the house once again. I was totally soaked in cold flood water for about twenty minutes. I had to stand on the stairway for a while to let the water dripped from my clothes. It was so nice to have warm shower after the ordeal.
The following day the flood water has risen again. I was feeling rather helpless as I was caught being imprudence and reckless. I thought this time the flood level would be at the same level as the last time, only the garden was flooded. Fortunately, my gardener turned up with her friend to check on how I was doing. My gardener was concerned about my safety being alone with two cats. They saw rapid rising water overnight so they came to move those remaining gadgets and the fridge to higher ground. I was very thankful for her consideration and concern about my safety. I was the only one staying in the house on the whole area. My house was still accessible from the back garden where people could climb over the fence onto the higher ground. The owners of the land at the back of the house had filled the land with extra mountain soil up to one meter. So, if worse came to worse, I could go up to the main road via this route.
These two hard working people started to move the electric brush cutters, bicycles and other gardening equipments up to the veranda on the second floor. Then they tackled the small fridge which was rather awkward to handle though it wasn’t that heavy. I took some photos and gathered smaller items like pot plants and buckets. They worked very fast as they were afraid of speedy rising floodwater. We had to let some bags of fertilisers got drown in flood as they were too heavy to be handled in this situation. Some bags of cement were also gone bad in the flood. The water pump was definitely drown despite the sand bags, the flood level was higher than the pile of sand bag!
We decided not to dwell on the losses and damages during the flood. My gardener was very concerned about the fruit trees. I later told her that I had two friends who would supply us with new saplings after the flood had gone. I suggested that she should set up fish trap in the garden. I saw some fish jumping about and several white migrating birds have arrived from Russia and China. They were fishing in the garden everyday. But I could no longer see our fish pond as the floodwater covered the whole pond. I was afraid all the tiny fish had all escaped or eaten by bigger fish. The whole fish pond had to be cleaned as muddy water would leave tons of mud behind.
I had to organise a makeshift toilet for my cats. Luckily the builder left a bag of sand which was rescued from the flood and my gardener found me a plastic basin. As soon as I introduced the sandy basin to my orange cats, the big cat jumped at it straightaway. Joan was very happy to see this sandy toilet. I ordered a proper plastic cat toilet and artificial sand for the cats. Kwan was glad to see the new toilet with organic sand, she went to test it out immediately.
My gardener did follow my suggestion and set out a fishing net in the garden. The following day, she found almost ten fish in the net. The flood level stayed very high for two days. The water started to come down six inches during the fifth and sixth days of flooding. When the water receded to the garden on the sixth day, my gardener and her friend would come back to start cleaning the floor. The flood brought incredible amount of sticky mud, this was the result of rainwater washing away the topsoil on the mountains in Laos and China. Some satellite photos showed mountainous areas without and trees in China and Laos. The problems of deforestation and corruptions continued to harm nature and people’s livelihoods downstream.
I was very grateful to be well looked after by friendly people around me and some villagers. I would never been able to imagine that I would be in very difficult situation and people would come to help me without having to request for their help. I wished I could have been able to shower them with huge monetary rewards. One day when the time was right and things were in the right places, I should be able to return their kindness.
My gardener told me all the fish had finally gone from the fish pond. We would have to get it cleaned up after the flood had disappeared. She would get some fish from her brother’s pond later on. I had given fish to various people on the past, so it would be nice to have some grandchildren fish in our fish pond. The prospect of a big cleaning after the flood was hanging in the air. I guessed we just had to take it day by day at a time. I have learned to be calm and thoughtful in times of sudden stress. Hopefully, I would have the stamina and presence of mind for dealing with more challenging situations in the future.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.