Flooding Surprise

Our adventure began in the middle of the night, when I saw flashing lights in the bedroom.  They had closed Prentice Street because of flooding, but that happens with many heavy rains.  I woke again around 2 and got up to investigate.  By then the rental car was flooded and the lights were on and the horn was beeping.  I was able to get it to stop beeping, but the lights stayed on, and that was that. . . 

Here, at 3AM, you can see the truck because the rental's lights won't go out.

Around 3, D moved his truck, which was not really happy, farther up the street.  The driveway with the car is a little higher, so we kept fingers crossed.  We did get water on the floorboards, but it seems ok, so far.

 The well-dressed problem solver - D had these waders in the closet, so he was ready to go.

More than a dozen houses on our block and two nearby blocks have flooded basements.

Well, NYSEG came out (at our request) to shut off the gas.  Since the furnace and hot water heater were under water, that seemed like a good idea.  Then we called the fire department to see if we could get pumped out.  Turns out they were already on our street - probably a dozen of us needed pumping.  While they were there, NYSEG came out and shut off the power to our house - probably a good idea, but it meant using my oxygen tanks instead of an electric concentrator.  And it meant that our two sump-pumps could not supplement the fire department pumps.   The house was getting cold (the winds are fierce!) and we decided to get a hotel room.  Alas, Tommy could not come with us, but we're at Fred's, so D or I can go back and forth to deal with Tommy.

This photo was taken mid-morning, after the water had dropped 18 inches.

Being optimists, we have an appointment with an electrician at 10AM to have him check the wiring.  However, since the river at Sherburne https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=bgm&gage=shbn6 has just barely dropped below "moderate flooding" stage, and is not projected to be below flood stage until Saturday evening, and that has to get to Norwich, I doubt that the pump will have it done by morning.

UPDATE:  Rather than leave a generator unattended, the fire department plans to turn it off tonight and return tomorrow with a bigger generator.

We have touched base with Morse Plumbing, and we will probably have them put a new furnace in the house or the attic.  But we do have electric space heaters, and the house is fairly tight, so if we get electricity we should be fine (with showers at the Y).

And, of course, today would be the day that the oxygen regulator on my tank would fail.  Fortunately, I had a back-up one left from our Baltimore adventure, but I really scared myself simple until we located it and replaced it.  And it was also fortunate that I had all my packing lists from the Baltimore trip, so I didn't have to think much!

There's no place like home!

Thank  you for your offers of help, support, and encouragement! I think we'll be ok.  I'm a little loopy with no sleep after 2am, but other than that, we're hanging in there.   Time for a nap!