Residents on East Minnesota Ave. were confronted by a “wild,flowing river” by 11 a.m. Thursday and had to be evacuated.

Gloria Byrd, 50, of 307 East Minnesota Ave., said the water roseso fast it was nearly in her house before she was aware of it.

Parts of Lincoln County received more than 10 inches of rainThursday when a storm front moved across the state.

Byrd said she was in the bathroom with a plumber when the stormstruck and didn’t realize the water was rising until they heard anoise in another room of the house. When she went to investigate,she discovered the clothes dryer wouldn’t work and went to checkthe outdoor circuit breaker box.

When she looked out, she discovered the water immersing heryard.

“Logs were coming down through here, mattresses — there wasjust everything flowing through here,” she said.

Water was beginning to penetrate into the plumber’s truck, Byrdsaid, and she warned him.

“I told him water was up in his van, and he better check it realquick. It rose that quick,” she said.

The plumber told her he would come back later and left. He wadedthrough waist-deep water to return to get to his van.

Byrd said she was changing clothes and preparing to leave when adaughter called. She told the daughter what was happening.

By the time she was finished changing clothes, Byrd said, twoofficers from the Brookhaven Police Department were knocking on thedoor to get her to safety. Her daughter had called them.

The two officers carried her grandson and granddaughter to thecorner of Minnesota Avenue and Second Street, where they had beenforced to leave their cars, then returned for her.

“When we left, the water was up on the porch,” Byrd said.

An officer escorted Byrd to the cars in neck-deep water, shesaid. Her 27-year-old son accompanied them.

“The water was so high that the clothes I put in a bag to takewith me and was carrying on my shoulder got wet, too,” Byrd said.”I had to buy clothes to wear (Thursday) night.”

Once officers got Byrd to the car, however, they were confrontedwith another problem.

“I’m not supposed to get wet like that,” Byrd said. “I washurting so bad.”

Byrd has a circulatory disease and when she gets cold and wet,her body finds it hard to circulate blood. In addition, she suffersfrom osteoporosis, low blood pressure and recently survived amassive heart attack.

“I thought I was going to have another heart attack,” she said.”I was so cold that it felt like I was being stabbed byknives.”

The officers kept her warm, and she used medications to get herbody back in control, she said.

Officers carried her to a daughter’s house, she said, and theyspent the night at a hotel.

They returned home early Friday morning and began cleaning up.Because she wasn’t home, Byrd wasn’t sure how high the water got inher house, but it was high enough to lift a few flooring tiles inthe bathroom and cause other mischief, she said.

A few boards were missing around the bottom of the house nearthe foundation where flooding had carried them away, she said, andother boards were bowed.

“Everything that was in the yard was washed away except thekids’ bikes,” Byrd said. “It’s a wonder it didn’t take them too. Ithas before.”

This is the third time police officers have had to rescue herfrom flood waters, she said. The intersection floods every time itrains hard.

“I do know one thing,” Byrd said. “I’m going to leave the nexttime it rains and not wait for it to begin to flood.”