This past summer brought with it many trials and tribulations. On one hand, many happy things occurred. People were married, others were vacationing in faraway places and some simply just enjoyed being at home. For others, home was a place that was enjoyable until the rain came.
During mid to late June, several homes, cities and towns were uprooted with the extreme flooding in the Midwest. The streets of small towns that were once busy with life were transformed into torrents of rainwater, causing chaos and disruption. Several people lost their homes and others who were lucky enough to be elsewhere watched their friends lose things that were once very close to their hearts.
One of the many towns devastated by the summer storms was Rock Valley, Iowa. A place that once held several of Northwestern College students, professors and faculty was nearly ripped out of existence from the horrid weather; a frequent question from these people’s mouths being, “Why is this happening?”
To answer that question is a very difficult task, mainly because it was certainly caused by a great number of things. For one, the constant rainfall disrupted natures natural way of producing and getting rid of water. This created a great excess of water that had nowhere to go. On top of this, the constantly changing climate intensified the frequency and severity of the problem, which then affected different buildings, companies and homes. No one could have been prepared for what they were handed, in any part of the nation.
One of the many students surrounding Rock Valley was Parker Van Peursem, a sophomore criminal justice major at NW. He shared his experience of the flooding from the unique perspective of a service worker.
“I was on-call for the Orange City Ambulance that weekend, so I was here in Orange City staying at my aunt’s house,” Van Peursem said. “I had been getting texts from the Rock Valley Ambulance, where I also volunteer, that there had been significant rainfall up north and the ambulance department was going door to door the night before telling people to voluntarily evacuate as a precaution.”
He continued to explain the chaos occurring, especially for those living in the area.
“All emergency responders were going door to door to help evacuate people, using boats and large payloaders. I did end up going to Rock Valley with the Orange City ambulance crew the next day to help where needed,” he said.
Van Peursem also shared how thankful he is for the Rock Valley community and how helpful they were amidst the wreckage.
Another NW student from Rock Valley, Julian Reyes Palma, shared his experiences in light of being a community member.
“I work in a local nursing home,” he said, “The nursing home in which I work moved to hall committees and school halls. We made a section of the school into a somewhat functioning nursing home for a whole week.”
Reyes Palma continued on, explaining other people’s reactions to the event.
“ It helped that school wasn’t going on because they could leave the town easier,” he said, “I didn’t have to worry about my little sisters or their education. Other families lost everything.”
Overall, the weather this summer had devastating effects on people’s lives. Though there was nothing that could have stopped the events, it is a great miracle that there were enough resources to help those in need and that those affected are now safe.
