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It's bad. When we spoke last night, there was still more rain and flooding to come. It's hard talking to someone in the midst of a tragedy, before you really know how bad it will turn out to be. But she's okay, stepfather and stepbrother are okay, dogs are fine. Farm animals okay so far - although her biggest fear is that they will drown during the night's rainfall. (Half of the barn has been washed away.) My biggest fear is that she'll try to save them in the middle of the dark dangerous rainy night and get washed away for her efforts. How to tell someone that the animals she's cared for for years aren't worth her own life?

Today, misery of miseries, I have the busiest day of work since I started this job - managing two large client events - a day I've been dreading for months now, and instead of focusing on nametags and caterers and last minute presentation changes, my mind will be elsewhere. Cell phone in my pocket, my body tensing each time it vibrates.

It's raining here now, loud against my air conditioner, which doesn't help.

Photo borrowed from pressconnects.com, an actual photo of a street in Mom's town.