flood of 2012.

For those of you who haven't heard we've had a little bit of rain come our way. Originally we didn't think much of it as it was pouring down on us last night but then we woke up to this at 5:30am.

Top Row: Car dealership by the mall, Duluth side street, Target. Middle Row: Lester River, side streets below London Rd. Bottom Row: Intersection of Woodland and St. Marie just 2 miles from our house and right down from UMD, Seal on Grand Ave, Canal Park Pier, and Hwy 13 in Superior. All pics borrowed from Facebook.

Turns out Duluth can fall victim to flash floods. We initially awoke to a text message informing Josh that UMD was shut down. In our mid-sleep confusion I grabbed the ipad next to the bed and logged on to the Duluth news. The first report I read was that of a polar bear and a seal missing from the zoo. Eight animals died and many more were missing and presumed dead. We later learned that the polar bear was found within the zoo and the seal, well that little guy made it to Grand Ave. before being rescued, poor thing. As you can see from the picture he looks terrified.

The rain has continued on and off throughout the day and at some point this morning the mayor declared a State of Emergency. Around 10am a friend of mine called and decided she just had to go out and see this for herself, and of course I was going to go with her. Josh told me I was crazy but within 5 minutes he too wanted to go, so I guess I'm not the only crazy one. We then heard "wait fo me, I'm getting my wain boots!" Coming from the 3 year old. So it became a family outing. My mom just about died when she found out we were leaving the house, she tends to overreact at times.

We made our way down Woodland Ave. and ran into this.

St. Marie Street by UMD.

We then made our way down the hill and saw this.

Superior St. by St. Luke's Hospital.

Running water on the streets.

And since we were out Josh decided we may as well hit up Gander Mountain, oh why not. On our way up the hill I also suggested that we stop at Target, and then we saw it was under water, total bummer too seeing as how we ran out of toilet paper last night.

In the car, flooded roads, tree in the yard.

Front yard of a home a few blocks down and that water was moving fast.

We appreciate the many phone calls and texts that have been coming our way since this morning. We're all okay and so far our house is okay too. The neighbors did lose a tree which just missed our deck. We were kind of bummed. We're running on borrowed time with the back deck, that insurance check would of been nice. Then again we're in this flash flood/storm warning until 10:30 tonight so you never know.

This day has just been a complete shock to all of us who live here, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost their homes. The damage we have seen today is unimaginable.