Well, it's been a week. This is a very unexpected and unusual flood. We are in a flood plain, and we knew that. After flooding a year or so ago where we got 18 inches in the basement, we replaced our weebly sump pumps with two powerful ones, and we thought we were set.
The police told the fire chief that at midnight all roads and bridges were clear. At 1AM a car was stalled in flooding on the next street over (Prentice St). That road is in a particularly low spot and often gets deep water, but not enough to flood! And now it was flooded one hour after there was no flooding anywhere. And our street was flooded by 2AM. The other odd thing is that it was the creek that flooded. The river never did flood here. Our house is about equidistant to the creek and the river.
The city has been great! The fire department set up pumps to pump out the basement. They ran for 8 days. D had to fill them with gas four times a day. But it worked! Today, two weeks later, there is no water coming into the basement and we have rolled up the hose on our two super-duper sump pumps.
We spent a week in a hotel. We were warm and dry. Poor Tommy had to stay home - but he does have a nice fur coat!
We had wonderful help from our electrician, Collier Electric. He got here as soon as the basement was workable and moved the electric panel to one of the bedrooms.
Our plumber, Morse, has been great. He was able to clean out the hot water heater, so that does not need replacing. So with electricity and hot water, it was easy to move back. Morse also lent us four electric space heaters, and we had two, so the house was toasty warm. (The electric bill should be interesting.) He is installing a new, more efficient, furnace - still in the basement, but high.
Above is the basement after the waters receded and a lot of stuff was taken out.
The water reached the hot air ducts that are now visible in this picture.
Notice the sturdy shelves broken by the weight of the wet things.
The flood water covered the first floor joists at the top of this picture.
We had our back-up supplies in the basement: Kleenex, paper towels, TP. Boy, are they ever heavy when they are wet!
Look at the silt left behind. And it is a clay, so it glues on.
All the saws and chisels are rapidly rusting, but there is so much else to do.
Water even got into the plastic storage boxes
These will all have to be washed and ironed. Sigh.
The tub needs to be filled at least four times to get sufficient rinsing.
Each piece of silver has to be hand washed and hand polished.
Fortunately, there were only two silver sets in the basement.
The cases are taken to the dump.
We sent a lot of stuff to the dump!
Today, D brought up some of my baking supplies.
Even the closed containers leaked and were ruined.
I'll wash the containers and make my own sugar!
When we went to the Mennonite bulk store today I priced replacements.
These little tubs that were less than a dollar (all that time ago. . . )
are closer to $4 today. And the silver and gold balls (dragées) are $8.
Last year I went nuts on food coloring, and the food coloring never made it to the basement, so this year I'll make my own colored sugar!
And, surprise, surprise, the silver dragées were spared. No gold ones this year, though.
And I was tickled to find, in the back of the baking cupboard in the kitchen, all the flavoring oils!!!
They had never made it to the basement!
I have 25 in the box (some duplicates) and those babies are $2-3 each to replace.
Now I don't have to!!!!
Some decisions are hard to make. We have a pizzelle iron.
I use it a couple of times a year, so it's probably not worth replacing.
Hooray - after cleaning, I think it may work.
I have the plates seasoning in the oven.
Stay tuned for updates!
