Aug 9, 2007

Declared State Disaster

The governor has declared the county I live in and the county just west of me, state disaster areas due to the massive amounts of flooding that occurred Monday night. According to city officials, at one point the city received 6” of rain in a 30 minute time span. Torrential rains hit my area around midnight Monday/Tuesday and continued ALL night long.

I was without hot water for a day and a half because the landlord couldn’t get the water heater to stay lit. Finally, he called a plumber who fixed it sometime last night. The dumpster is full and will be emptied/returned today so more stuff can be tossed.

I have an extension cord running from the kitchen to the basement to run the extra fans. Even with the basement door open just a crack for the cord, the smell from the basement is AWFUL. Instantly, my allergies and asthma kick up and I can “taste” the mold/mildew in my lungs... if that makes sense.

I am grateful that it wasn’t worse than it is. I know there are other people who had water in their basements up to the first floor. The neighbor’s daughter was really irritating me the way she was “carrying on” about how bad this sucked, how gross it was cleaning the basement each and every time she made a trip to the dumpster. I felt like telling her to suck it up and be quiet already. We all know it sucks and it’s unpleasant, but there’s really nothing we can do about it. She’s not the only one in the neighborhood that has to deal with it.

10 comments:

Singular Stitches said...

Wow, stay safe and dry!!

How's the house you've placed a bid on? Did it fare well with all the rain?

Greg said...

I can smell/taste the mold from here. eww I know how your allergies and asthma must be affecting you as mine would be doing the same thing. Wear a mask or something going down there so you don't have to breath it.

Nancy in IL said...

Meari, I'm so sorry about the state of your basement and the problems resulting. Believe me, I can commiserate. We've had so many floods in our basement, we can no longer get flood insurance. We finally remedied the problem, but it cost us dearly monetarily.

LOVE your mime!!!

Anita said...

Sorry to hear about the flooding and your basement with all those water. Take care.

Valda said...

I'm sorry to hear you're having to deal with this. We had flooding in OK a month or so ago and was also declared a disaster area. Thank God houses in our area are above flood areas but many a mile or so to the west of us weren't so lucky.
Be careful with the mold and mildew, especially since you have asthma. Wearing a mask would probably be your best bet. You don't want to be breathing that stuff. It can really make you very, very sick.

Take care!

Cindy said...

Wow...you really got hit hard with all of that rain. We have gotten a lot here, and I know that it has been a lot worse farther north. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and everything will dry out and be back to as normal as it can be.

I'm crossing my fingers that your house negotiations will work out for you!

Anonymous said...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your house becomes YOUR house! I'm sorry to read of all you've had to deal with, with the water & all. Major yuck!!

stitcherw said...

I'm so sorry, it sounds like a horrible mess to have to deal with, and with your allergies and such on top of it a miserable task is even worse. I hope it is able to air out/dry out fairly soon so that the smell at least isn't as bad.
Sue

Kathy said...

I love your stories about your neighbors. The daughter sounds like a selfish, thoughtless b****. But then you already knew that from other dealings with them. I have been gone for several days so am catching up on blogs through my Google Reader. Anxiously awaiting the next news you have for us regarding your new house. Good Luck.

Unknown said...

Whenever I have to deal with whiney people I always tell myself that I don't have to live with them. You are leaving and she will probably always have that personality.