Did anyone get the number of that ark?

[badseed1980]

pierceheart and I got to my place last night, just stopping in to grab a book on our way to the laundromat from his place.

The world was full of water.

For those of you who've been to my place, you know that there's a sort of concrete upper patio area, a teeny garden to the left of it, and then to the left of that, a set of steps going down to another, smaller, walled-in concrete area in front of my door. That little walled-in concrete space had two feet of standing water in it, and it was rising. The water was pouring in from up on the bike path, over the patio, over the garden, and down to my front door.

We splashed through the ankle-deep ice water filling the backyard to get to the back door. Miraculously, the drain in that area was working, and we were able to get the back door open. There was an inch of water covering the floor of my entire apartment, with the exception of a few spots in fangirl715's room. Those spots had been claimed by three very frightened cats. More water was pouring in through the chinks around the front door.

I tried calling my landlady. She said she'd call her husband and see what he said to do. In the meantime, pierceheart and I got all the appliances on the floor up and unplugged, using a silicone oven mitt for safety. We then grabbed a bucket and started bailing out the front door area. I waded into the freezing water to get a snow shovel. We used that to start bailing water away from the upper patio area, to keep more water from pouring down if we could.

We called the Somerville fire department to have them come check to see if we had any danger of an electrical fire, and to ask if they could do something about helping us pump out. They said we looked safe enough, and put us on the list for a volunteer FD group to come by with sump pumps, whenever they had the chance.

The boy eventually had to go home and change his boots before he got trench foot. While he was out, he got in touch with an acquaintance who had access to a sump pump. I asked my home-with-basement-owning friends if they had one. They didn't, but giffin offered to swing by Home Depot and get one and bring it over. He rocks. But then, my landlady arrived with a sump pump (she hadn't told me she had one or was bringing it over), and I called him to let him know we wouldn't need him to bring one.

We got those two pumps going, and the landlady and I started the business of mopping up the floors inside. It was exhausting, sopping water up and wringing out towels continually. My hands are chapped and my forearms are sore from it. Eventually, the boy and his acquaintance went and got some mops and an industrial wringer bucket. That helped. The FD auxiliaries came by with pumps that were set to work in the basement, which had eight inches of water in it. This, by the way, had caused our pilot lights to go out so there was no hot water.

Eventually:

fangirl715 came home to find the situation mostly under control, and her roommate and roommate's boyfriend on the verge of collapse.

We got pizza at 11pm, since we hadn't eaten dinner.

The landlord came by to tell us that he didn't like the way the hot water tank was running, so he would send a plumber by in the morning to find out if we needed it fixed or replaced.

Finally, the boy and I went to his place and fell asleep. It was about 12:30.

Yeah, another day out of work today. Cleanup.

Comments

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

Aw, man - that sucks. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. I'm glad to read that there weren't any major problems like fires and what not, but still, what a PITA.

Can you put sandbags at the top of that outside stairway to divert any future rainwater? There are several stairways like that on base, to prevent the same sort of problem.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

We're going to try to get DPW out to sandbag along the bike path area to keep it from coming down that far in the first place.

By the way, happy birthday!

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

Hopefully DPW will do so and eliminate the problem.

And thank you very much!

[madamruppy.livejournal.com]

WOW, I've had that sort of flood but luckily it has only been in my basement. My suggestion is to talk to your landlord about working something out to have a professional company come in to dry the carpet and such, even with a wet vac you won't be able to get it all up and you don't want that staying damp and having a mold problem.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, we don't have carpets--the whole place is marble and tile flooring--so that's in our favor. (I'm writing this from ceo & gosling's place; I spend 1/2 an hour on the phone w/Comcast to find out they can't come out until probably Saturday 1-3 PM.)

One more piece of collateral damage: one of the terrified cats apparently peed all over my mattress, pretty much soaking it through, so I guess I'm in the market for a new one... :-( (Not something you want to find out at 1 a.m. when you want to just fall into bed. I ended up flipping the mattress, turning it around so the wet spot was underneath and at my feet, and put clean sheets on the bed from there.) Wonder how much money the laundromat is going to make from us today?... *sigh*

[madamruppy.livejournal.com]

Nature's Miracle is your friend. It gets rid of the pee smell and all sort of other organic stuff. Country Max, PetCo, PetsMart all of those places carry it. Even my grocery store does in the pet section.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

No carpets, fortunately. I just want them to clean the fucking drains.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Damn, that sucks.
I thought it was bad when it was our basement flooding, but the entire apartment?? Your landlord doesn't sound very responsive, either.
Well, here's hoping your V-Day gets better.

[hippie1025.livejournal.com]

Yikes, and I thought *my* night was bad! Sorry you guys had to go through all that. Well, things have to get better today, right? :)

[zzbottom.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! What an awful night and not at all the night you had originally planned. I am so sorry I wasn't there to help, but it sounds like you were definitely not in it by yourself, at least. :(

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Aw. Thanks. Yeah, we got everything under control. Anyway, you were sick! Yeah, it was lucky the boy was there, because the roommate didn't get home until late.

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

zzbottom filled me in.....total suck!!

Not sure who said it on here but you 100% want to get the landlord to have the carpets professionally cleaned or they are going to have major mold in there.

I had a minor water issue in my basement....had to rip out the really ugly pink carpet cause I didn't want mold in it. Only had a little issue the next year but I know there is something in the space cause things now will grow in beer and mead that is brewed. Nothing deadly, but yeah not good.

*hugs*

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, we have NO carpeting, just marble and ceramic tile. :)

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

The no carpet is good.

I wish you a much better evening tonight.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm having dinner with pierceheart at The Fireplace, so that should be good. :)

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I was looking at the Fireplace for Restaurant week. You will have to let me know how it is.

Enjoy :)

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Will do!

[leenah.livejournal.com]

gah!!!

they put up the jersey barriers and sandbags at my condo complex last night. so far the creek is still w/i its banks.

still going to daley's tomorrow night? i'll try to call.

best wishes!!!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I'd like to go, but I'm not sure...there's still rather a chunk of clean-up to do. It might not be as bad as I'm thinking, though. I'll think about it tonight.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Man, compared to this, my night was peaches and roses. Hope you get it all sorted quickly!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[j4yx0r.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That sounds dreadful. Something must be aligned (or misaligned). Last night my audio receiver blew up and the heating tank in my water dispenser cracked and leaked everywhere. Sorry for all the work you had to do and stress it must be causing.

~j

[autumnsshadow.livejournal.com]

ugh - that sucks. having had to do that cleanup job on several occasions, i know how much fun it isn't.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Oh, christ. Deepest sympathies.

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

That really, really sucks.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yep, it sucked massively. Fortunately, the damage was fairly minimal.

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

That's good at least. What kind of flooring does your place have?

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Tile and marble. Hence the minimal damage. :)

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

Oh sweet. 8)

Trying to dry floor-to-wall carpets is a nightmare. My friend's building flooded during college and it took a week before the floors were completely dry.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. We had a flood in my old office a few years ago, when a pipe broke. It was miserable.

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad you guys got off fairly easily. 8)