Yeah, sometimes I'm corny like that :)
We, ummm, enjoyed the effects of Hurricane Irene this week. This hurricane hit the coast of NC and then proceeded to pummel the East Coast all the way up into New England. On one hand, the hurricane ended up being much weaker than originally forecasted, and therefore, did not cause as much damage as at first expected. On the other hand, the damage it did cause in certain areas was really bad...some areas are just devastated. When I see the pictures, I wonder what would have happened if the storm had stayed more powerful. It was technically only a Category 1 when it hit the coast, but it was a huge storm...and she left her mark...all the way up into Vermont.
The storm came ashore near Moorhead City, NC, tore through the coastal areas and Outer Banks, walloped the Virginia Beach area, cruised up the Delmarva Peninsula, pummeled the Jersey shore, hit Long Island and proceeded to continue dropping amazing amounts of water up into the New England states. It has left flooding and destruction in its path.
We were expecting a pretty tough time of it here in the Philly area. We have already had the wettest August on record. The ground here is simply saturated and cannot hold a drop more...and then Irene decided to add to the water amounts. Flooding was a huge concern with the storm approaching as well as power outages.
We prepared by having extra water on hand, gathering the candles and flashlights, and making sure our radio had batteries. We have a gas stove and can use the burners without electricity, so I wasn't too worried about food or cooking.
I was a bit concerned about our basement though. Basements around here get water in them pretty easily...it is not uncommon at all. We have a french drain and sump pump in our basement and have never had a real problem with water. But, with the ground already so wet and the expectation that we would lose power, I was concerned that we could easily flood if the sump pump could not work. Thankfully, Steve and I had really gotten a lot of cleaning up, cleaning out, and organizing done in our basement in the spring and summer. Steve brought his guitars and amp and some other music equipment up out of the basement in case. We had a lot of kids clothes stored down there, but they were in plastic tubs, so I thought they would be fine. Other items were stored on shelves...not much was on the floor.
Well, the storm arrived...it rained all day, Saturday, August 27th. Then the wind began to pick up. We lost power at 10 that night...uh oh, the worse part of the storm had not even arrived yet. We all slept in one room (mine and Steve's)...the one with the least amount of possible damage from any falling trees. And thankfully, we slept pretty well through that dark and stormy night. We woke up around 6 and found about 2 to 3 inches of water in the basement. Our basement is not completely level, so one corner had about a 1/2 inch of water and the opposite corner had 3 to 4 inches. Well, what's done is done, so we didn't panic...instead we heated up some coffee and enjoyed a cup. Steve tried to figure out a way to siphon some of the water out while I tried to figure out a way to go ahead and start working on the water situation. So, after our coffee, we went back down and noticed that the water was rising...time for action! Steve worked on his siphon plan while the girls and I began hand bailing the basement. I put a big bucket on a chair, the girls used their smaller buckets to fill it, then I trucked it upstairs and emptied it. While I was carrying one bucket, the girls worked on filling up another...when I got back with the empty bucket, I traded it for the filled one...what a workout! Unfortunately, Steve could not get the siphon plan working, but the girls and I were actually making progress...we all took a break.
 |
| Thanks Hurricane Irene~ |
 |
| Hard working members of the Bucket Brigade~ |
 |
| This sweet one enjoyed just hanging out~ |
During breaktime, we checked on our neighbors around us...just about everyone had water. Our next door neighbor had 18 inches in his basement...so did one neighbor across the street...yikes! Then back to work we went...this time Steve was the big bucket lugger while the girls and I rotated watching Gracia and bucket bailing in the basement. It was a great morning of teamwork...the girls were wonderful workers! We had the basement cleared of standing water by 10:30 that morning...boy, were we tired!
Then Steve took our truck and helped our neighbor get a generator to power the pump for his basement. The fire department arrived right after Steve and our neighbor left. They were checking on homes and families and taking a list of names of homes to come help pump out with their truck...wow, super kudos to our local fire department! The guys got back and got the generator going...we also hooked up to it and our sump pump unloaded gallon after gallon of water out of our basement even though there was no more standing water in it...crazy! Here we are, two days later, and the pump is still coming on every now and then...sending water down our front slope. Thankfully, the post storm weather has been B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L and we are enjoying cooler temps, low humidity, and bright, sunny skies...and we are drying out :)
Our power was restored early afternoon the next day...much earlier than we had expected. Now it was time to assess the damage. Thankfully, no major appliances suffered any damage...phew! We found a few boxes that took on water and so we had to deal with them...toss or salvage. I found one more box of kids clothes that got water damaged, so I quickly did a load of laundry and they are fine. We had some boxes of packing material we had been saving that got wet...down to the curb they went. Some books we had intended on giving away got damaged and had to go in the garbage too. A few more things had to go bye-bye, but it wasn't that bad.
The carpet, however, was bad. It was squishy and we quickly realized that a shop vac was not going to do the job at hand. Steve rented a carpet steam cleaner that evening and we made plans to tackle Operation Dry Dock the next day. We spent hours and hours and hours on Monday working on the carpet in the basement. First Steve simply used the machine to suck up water, then he did a pass with carpet cleaner...and it was working! I was there as a mover of things in the way, organizer of what was left, shop vac user, fan mover person, and for moral support...as well as taking care of Gracia :) Steve was the one doing the real work...he and his S.U.X. 2000 (the name he gave the carpet cleaner) made quite a pair!
 |
| Steve and the S.U.X. 2000~ |
So, now we continue to move fans around while the last bit dries. It looks so nice and clean down there now...I just have to repack a few more things. All in all, we fared pretty well.
I am so thankful for God's protection in the storm~
Have a blessed day~
Rach
No comments:
Post a Comment