Yesterday, after I picked Adam up from the baseball camp he's been attending this week, I noticed that the sky to the east was getting dark. He and I had lunch, and I dropped him off at my ex's house. By the time I got home, it was raining buckets.
I had a bad feeling about it-- the last time it had rained like this, 5 or 6 years ago, the basement had flooded. Over time, I'd taken precautions against it, and my landlord had had the drainage replaced, at great cost. But when I looked down in the basement, there was over a foot of water in it-- I think it was a foot and a half at its height.
I put on a pair of the boots that my landlord keeps in the landing for such an event, and waded in, clearing the floating stuff that might block the drain. I called my landlord up, letting him know I'd taken care of it; he was stuck on the Edens Expressway, and it took him nearly two hours to get home.
The upgraded drain worked well once the rain stopped. The basement drained out in about an hour.
The losses were a lot less bad than I thought. I've been dragging waterlogged stuff out and cleaning on and off since yesterday, and thinking about my connection to my "stuff." More to follow.
8 comments:
oh boy. what about mold growth?
Is that a pallet jack in the backround of the first picture? I could use one of those.
Damn, that sucks JY! Good luck with cleaning up and I hope you didn't loose anything to the great flood of 07.
And I thought three hours of wetness from crossing the street was bad. Hope your stuff is okish
You should have left the cat down in the basement......
One word: "ugh".
Our basement used to flood when we lived in Indiana. I think the stink is the worst part. Good luck, go buy room deodorizers!
best of luck on a quick recovery. i've lived through a flood and it's not fun. just keep telling yourself, "this too shall pass."
We lived in Naperville when the big 100 year flood event happened there. Fortunately we didn't lose anything of much importance.
I've cleaned up enough annoying water in the basement events (humidifier clogs, hot water heater leaks, etc.) that I never store anything in cardboard anymore. Only those plastic boxes - preferably clear ones so that I can see what's in there.
When I moved I used a lot of them for packing, knowing I would have to store some stuff. I wish I could give you about 20 of them!!
Good luck! I wish I could mail you some desert dry heat - that basement would be bone dry in about 2 hours!!
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