TOLEDO -- Just when you'd think they'd taken all they possibly could, area residents proved their resilience Friday. Rain moved through the area, drenching ground already too full of water to accept any more. But as flood waters invaded roads, yards, homes, and businesses for the fourth time in three weeks, the community didn't give up. They fought back.
Nowhere was that can-do spirit more in evidence than on Crawford Avenue. Residents and others who just wanted to lend a helping hand to their near and not-so-near neighbors showed up to fill and stack the sandbags that put a protective wall between vulnerable homes and Shantee Creek. The energy was palpable as families, friends, and even strangers pitched in to make the work go faster.
One woman who took her chances driving through flood waters found herself stuck and stranded in her car. But there, too, teamwork could be seen as men helped her return to dry land.
Golf fans on the Highland Meadows greens felt blue about 3:00 Friday afternoon when the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic was halted. There was no other choice, of course, with heavy rain sweeping across the fairway and high water flowing like a river.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner pledged Friday night to put the city's resources to work to solve the problems that have become so evident over the past three weeks.
