It’s a Wee Bit Wet in Colorado Today

UPDATE: 50% OF ROYALTIES WILL GO TOWARD FLOOD RELIEF

I will contributing 50% of royalties received for Sept 1-Nov 30, 2013 sales of my Zombie Bible novels to flood relief via the Grey Havens Group’s flood relief fund. Currently, the GHG fund is being spent on linens and essential household items for two newly-homeless residents of Boulder County and on providing food for relief workers and volunteers.

Here are today’s photographs from my beloved state of Colorado, suffering flash floods:

That’s Mother Nature. Proud job creator since 125,000 BC.

This is within a half mile of my home. We are staying just above the water, however, and our neighborhood is not being evacuated.

I know people who have lost their homes. Those of you not living in Colorado, please keep us in your thoughts. Whether in Colorado or outside it, scroll down to learn how you can help.

My wife and I — our residence is unaffected, although the roads flooded today all around us, confining us at home. This made a bit of an afternoon holiday for my oldest, though. Previously, little River had been mourning the loss of her pond nearby; it had become a mere pit of rocks, completely dried out. Last night, she stared at the sky as it rained and said happily, “Storm come out. Rain bring more water!”

Today, her pond covers the entire field around it, lapping at the edge of a nearby home on one side and the top of a dike barring it from the street on the other. It is ten feet deep and seventy feet across. “Ocean!” River cried as she and I splashed out into the rain to look at it together, during a lull in the downpour. “River swimming in the ocean!” I helped her take off her galoshes and held her hand tightly as she waded ankle-deep along the edge. Then we hurried back indoors as round two of the downpour began to gather overhead.

Elsewhere, it’s Bad
For River it was a wonderful holiday. But nearby, others have lost cars and homes, entire towns have been evacuated, and there have been a few fatalities. The weather service predicts that tonight, a “wall of water” will hit Boulder, CO, and Longmont, CO to our north has been “cut in two” by the floods.

Nearer home, numerous streets and intersections within a half mile of our home have been closed, and many homes east of ours have seen flood damage. At least at this point, we don’t expect the water to flood ours, but other places in our city and our state are less fortunate.

Want to Help?
I have been told that LifeBridge Church on Ute Highway in Longmont, CO — http://lbcc.org/ — is serving as an evacuation center for Lyons. They are in dire need of toiletries and blankets for local evacuees. If you are in the area or have the means to send them supplies, please consider it.

I am also helping to organize a small, financial relief effort.

I am a member of a wonderful Colorado nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and promoting literacy along the Front Range. We host reading days, symposiums, and events for children; partner with one of the region’s several most active independent bookstores; and hold a number of seasonal festivities, including a “Nerd Life Sing-a-long” event (Firefly, Star Trek, and other nerdy themes abound.) We are called the Grey Havens Group. Some of our members–friends of mine–have seen horrific damage to their homes in today’s flash floods. Also, a number of members had to evacuate their homes and we have not heard back from them yet.

The Grey Havens Group is going to be collecting funds for flood relief for members and people in our community. To help, you can contribute at http://greyhavensgroup.com/support/ and then send an email to Kelly Cowling at greyhavensgroup@gmail.com to specify that your contribution is to be used for the flood relief fund.

I can vouch for the fund — the more so as I was the one to propose the idea. You can learn more about GHG at our website greyhavensgroup.com, and I hope you’ll consider lending a hand. Thank you.

Stant Litore

Stant Litore is a novelist. He writes about gladiators on tyrannosaurback, Old Testament prophets battling the hungry dead, geneticists growing biological starships, time-traveling hijabi bisexual defenders of humanity from the future. Explore his fiction here. And here is one of his toolkits for writers, and here’s another book where he nerds out about ancient languages and biblical (mis)translation. Enjoy!