Wanna see something Heartbreaking?......
Jonesin' for a little schadenfreude fix?
My "Joe Room" is in a raised floor section of my basement which is prone to some minor flooding from time to time... the highest it ever got was about 4 or five inches deep in the main section and never more than maybe an inch or so above the raised floor even in the worst rainstorms...
We installed a sump pump a while back and since then the most water we've had is maybe an inch or so that the sump pump gets rid of fairly quickly and it never reaches the raised floor at all...
I brought some of my more prized figures and gear upstairs this year because of the occasional dampness down there.... but i still had hundreds of figures, dozens of vehicles and a truckload of gear stored down there...
my workshop is also located down there and most of my wood , metal , and leather working supplies...
Thursday it rained really hard..... really really freakin hard and we notice the lights of a police car pull up to the house across the street, soon followed by a firetruck , and then an ambulance...
turns out that our neighbor was in his basement trying to plug in his sump pump while standing in water and was electrocuted (he's ok just badly burned and shaken up) this reminds us that maybe we should look and see if our pump is doing it's job...
we open up the door to discover around 8 inches of water... we can't hear the sump pump running ... and there is a small electric fan still plugged in and running under the water...
my wife goes across the street to enlist the help of some firemen... who were in the process of pumping water out of our electrocuted neighbor's basement...
the firemen arrange for our gas to be shut off since the flood has drowned the pilot light in our hot water heater and we pull out the fuses marked for the basement ...
standing in the dark holding flashlights on the stairs above a foot or so of rising water in the basement that may or may not have live wires in it i turn to the firefighter standing behind me and say... "if i step into this and get zapped, you Will pull me out of here, Right"
He agrees and we both wade into the water i get about 15 feet and hear the fireman say "hey this fan is still running under water"
I reply... "then i don't think i want to be standing in this!"
he yanks the plug out of the wall and we check the sump pump ... which appears to be running... so we head back upstairs...
where we realize that the flooding is actually shifting the foundations of the house enough that large cracks are forming in the plaster walls in over a dozen places...
the firemen tells us that if the cracking gets worse or of the windows start breaking we should evacuate... then he leaves to evacuate an apartment complex down the block...
fearing the collapse of our home, the wife and i start packing up boxes of photos and preparing to grab the baby and flee...
we call some fiends and ask them to pray...
i go outside to see if the Sump Pump hose needs to be positioned further away from the house and i discover that There is No Water Coming Out Of It...
back into the dark basement where the water is now past my knees... i try to figure out why the Damn pump is running without actually moving any water... filled with thoughts that my recently electrocuted neighbor was doing pretty much the same dumbass thing i was when he got zapped, I pray hard and jiggle the floater bar....
And it works!!!! Water rushes up the pipe and out the hose....
back up stairs we get calls and online messages from some of our other friends who say they are praying for us...
and the rain stops.
i hear music from the basement... it's the sound of my 18" Art Asylum Alice Cooper playing "Welcome to my Nightmare" for probably the last time as he sinks below the water...
my wife asks "do i hear music?"
i say "yeah... Alice Cooper"
she says "OK."
he plays his clip from "welcome to my nightmare" through a couple more times times. then he makes a staticy burbling hissing sound and goes silent.
i hit the shower and go to bed...
THE AFTERMATH
the water picked up my stacks of totes and tipped them over into the water....
many of them landed on their sides and filled with water...
one stack fell over so hard that it sheared the head and shoulders off of a hasbro 12" invisible man figure...
I spent all day yesterday carrying stuff out of the basement into my Garage where i'm trying to air it out to see what , if anything can be salvaged...
huge totes full of garment grade and exotic leather are soaked through....
everything is covered in a layer of silty muck...
huge totes full of 1:6 gear and clothing are drenched...
i'm just thankful :thanks that my wife and daughter are alright and that the place didn't fall down....
but there is a lot of cleaning salvaging and throwing out to be done...
weeks of work probably...
the insurance company says nothing is covered... apparantly floods aren't covered by our policy... and even if they were the agent says that the flood insurance doesn't cover items located in basements anyway... :broke
Jonesin' for a little schadenfreude fix?
My "Joe Room" is in a raised floor section of my basement which is prone to some minor flooding from time to time... the highest it ever got was about 4 or five inches deep in the main section and never more than maybe an inch or so above the raised floor even in the worst rainstorms...
We installed a sump pump a while back and since then the most water we've had is maybe an inch or so that the sump pump gets rid of fairly quickly and it never reaches the raised floor at all...
I brought some of my more prized figures and gear upstairs this year because of the occasional dampness down there.... but i still had hundreds of figures, dozens of vehicles and a truckload of gear stored down there...
my workshop is also located down there and most of my wood , metal , and leather working supplies...
Thursday it rained really hard..... really really freakin hard and we notice the lights of a police car pull up to the house across the street, soon followed by a firetruck , and then an ambulance...
turns out that our neighbor was in his basement trying to plug in his sump pump while standing in water and was electrocuted (he's ok just badly burned and shaken up) this reminds us that maybe we should look and see if our pump is doing it's job...
we open up the door to discover around 8 inches of water... we can't hear the sump pump running ... and there is a small electric fan still plugged in and running under the water...
my wife goes across the street to enlist the help of some firemen... who were in the process of pumping water out of our electrocuted neighbor's basement...
the firemen arrange for our gas to be shut off since the flood has drowned the pilot light in our hot water heater and we pull out the fuses marked for the basement ...
standing in the dark holding flashlights on the stairs above a foot or so of rising water in the basement that may or may not have live wires in it i turn to the firefighter standing behind me and say... "if i step into this and get zapped, you Will pull me out of here, Right"
He agrees and we both wade into the water i get about 15 feet and hear the fireman say "hey this fan is still running under water"
I reply... "then i don't think i want to be standing in this!"
he yanks the plug out of the wall and we check the sump pump ... which appears to be running... so we head back upstairs...
where we realize that the flooding is actually shifting the foundations of the house enough that large cracks are forming in the plaster walls in over a dozen places...
the firemen tells us that if the cracking gets worse or of the windows start breaking we should evacuate... then he leaves to evacuate an apartment complex down the block...
fearing the collapse of our home, the wife and i start packing up boxes of photos and preparing to grab the baby and flee...
we call some fiends and ask them to pray...
i go outside to see if the Sump Pump hose needs to be positioned further away from the house and i discover that There is No Water Coming Out Of It...
back into the dark basement where the water is now past my knees... i try to figure out why the Damn pump is running without actually moving any water... filled with thoughts that my recently electrocuted neighbor was doing pretty much the same dumbass thing i was when he got zapped, I pray hard and jiggle the floater bar....
And it works!!!! Water rushes up the pipe and out the hose....
back up stairs we get calls and online messages from some of our other friends who say they are praying for us...
and the rain stops.
i hear music from the basement... it's the sound of my 18" Art Asylum Alice Cooper playing "Welcome to my Nightmare" for probably the last time as he sinks below the water...
my wife asks "do i hear music?"
i say "yeah... Alice Cooper"
she says "OK."
he plays his clip from "welcome to my nightmare" through a couple more times times. then he makes a staticy burbling hissing sound and goes silent.
i hit the shower and go to bed...
THE AFTERMATH
the water picked up my stacks of totes and tipped them over into the water....
many of them landed on their sides and filled with water...
one stack fell over so hard that it sheared the head and shoulders off of a hasbro 12" invisible man figure...
I spent all day yesterday carrying stuff out of the basement into my Garage where i'm trying to air it out to see what , if anything can be salvaged...
huge totes full of garment grade and exotic leather are soaked through....
everything is covered in a layer of silty muck...
huge totes full of 1:6 gear and clothing are drenched...
i'm just thankful :thanks that my wife and daughter are alright and that the place didn't fall down....
but there is a lot of cleaning salvaging and throwing out to be done...
weeks of work probably...
the insurance company says nothing is covered... apparantly floods aren't covered by our policy... and even if they were the agent says that the flood insurance doesn't cover items located in basements anyway... :broke
