By Bruce Thomas, American Red Cross

On July 17, 2024, the Warren family, along with their neighbors in Flippin, AR awoke to a shock. A 1,000-year rainfall event had destroyed their home of 27 years.

The Warrens are long-time residents of Flippin. Joseph’s family moved from Chicago to Flippin, where he met Dana at the local HeadStart preschool program. They married after high school and raised five children—Jessica, Christopher, Trinity, Layla, and Remington (Remi). Dana, Layla, 13, and Remi, 10, would eventually need to be rescued from the Warren home during the flood.

The National Weather Service (NWS) estimated more than five inches of rain fell in just over a two-hour period over Quary Mountain in Marion County, AR. The torrent of water rushed through normally tranquil Fallen Ash Creek, a tributary to the beautiful Arkansas White River downstream of Bull Shoals Lake, causing a devastating flash flood.

The night of the flood, Joseph Warren left his home around 3:30 a.m. for his 4 a.m. shift as a truck driver for a local waste disposal company in neighboring Baxter County. His wife Dana was awakened just before 4 a.m. by something hitting the back of their home. She looked outside and saw rapidly rising flood water. She began calling for help. As the rushing flood waters entered the house, Dana was able to reach her oldest son Christopher on the phone. He drove through the active flash flood to rescue his mother, sister, and brother.

Moments after their rescue, the Warren family home broke free from its foundation and started moving downstream. Its progress was stopped by a stand of large trees, and the water receded rapidly. “It was all over by 5 a.m.,” said Joseph.

The Warren family lost everything in the flood. But, thanks to family, a strong local community, and the American Red Cross, the Warren family is moving forward and feels fortunate to have survived this tragedy. Early in the recovery process, the American Red Cross swept in to lend caring support, providing cleaning supplies, a teddy bear for Remi, and a Walmart gift card. Joseph said they used some of these funds to buy washing detergent for their flood soiled clothing and plastic tubs to store their personal items that were salvaged from their destroyed home.

Just eight days prior (July 9^th, 2024) the remnant of Hurricane Beryl (the earliest Atlantic category 5 hurricane on record) passed over Marion County producing nearly 8 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period, saturating the ground and setting the stage for the next catastrophic rainfall event on July 17^th, 2024. These dramatic rainfall events are becoming much more common place across America, due to the impacts of global climate change.

This is truly why the American Red Cross, and our Disaster Action Team (DAT) members are needed more than ever before. Please consider becoming DAT certified and sign up to volunteer by visiting redcross.org/volunteer.