Flooding

This is the first in a series of posting, I'm sure. We had rain Sunday night, a lot of rain. The town next to mine, New Hartford, got 7" of rain in one night. I live in a basement (you know where this is going). I woke up Monday morning and stepped off my bed into a puddle. My first thought was "I peed the bed." I have never peed the bed since I was little, but that was my first thought. But then I realized the bed wasn't wet so then I figured it out. My landlady had gone on vacation Saturday night and before she left she said "I turned the heat down." My reply was "Turn it off, it's not that cold, plus my heat from below will keep things ok." Then I thought that a pipe had burst because I told her to turn her heat off. I would have felt so bad. In 40 years, there has never been water in the basement. That's why I didn't think it was the rain.

But I went for a tour of her house and no problems up there. I got a wet/dry vac, moved some furnature and sucked up about 20 gal of water and went off to work. It was still coming in, but not that bad.

I came home from work Monday w/ a better wet/dry vac. I moved more furnature. And sucked up about 150 gallons. It seemed to have stopped coming in. But stuff was still wet. I set up a fan and dehumidifer. And I went to sleep.

GardenGirl (welcome aboard) lives across the street from the Farmington River. The water kept rising up....and up....and up. It started flowing in generously though the walls. Finally about 11 last night (Monday) it just started reached the windows and hatchway in the basement. The basement is now full to the ceiling with water. Washer, dryer, heater, how water, all trash. They had to shut the power off to the whole street.

GG's parents live 5 houses down the street and their nursury is right next door. And behind them is all woods. So tonight I have to go over with my kayak and rescue stuff from the woods. Just stuff that floating away. It's easier to tow stuff out now than to hike in the woods and carry stuff out later. It's was supposed to crest today at noon. I want to get out into the woods and kayak before it goes down. It is pretty fun to kayak in the woods.

I'll try to get pictures of the flood and keep you all updated.


PART 2!!!!

OK, so I went down to GG's house w/ the kayak. I got there and her brother was supposed to meet me there. No one. I called her parents and they decided it was rainy and cold, so we would do it another day. They left me a message but I didn't check them. So I was "gear up" to walk in the water. That means pants I didn't care about and wool socks and water shoes and a hat. It was quite a beautiful site. Well, her road was closed, but she lives at a T, also a bridge, so I drove to the end of the T. But so was everyone else including the random cop. On the bridge, river raging beneath me, I start to wonder, is kayaking now illegal? It's definitely not the smartest thing I've ever done. I'm not kayaking in the river itself, just in the flood plain woods.

I take a walk back there, the water is absolutely freezing. About 3 minutes and I can't feel my toes. So I look in the house, everything looks ok, no water on the 1st floor. I go back, get the kayak. If nothing else, I'm leaving it there for GG to use to round up all the stuff in the woods. So I decide the plain doesn't have much flow, so I get in and I'm off into the woods. My main goal is to find her dad's canoe, a vital tool in rescuing stuff later on.

I'm paddling behind house's, dodging branches, running over logs, getting stuck in vines. You just tap the logs and they sink an you go right over them, quite rewarding. I hear a car horn honk a bunch of times. The last thing I want is to someone think I need rescuing and endanger themselves to help me. I figure if it is a cop, he'll at least give a couple chirps of the siren.

So thankfully the canoe is white. I begin looking for it. You would think it would be downstream. I finally see it upstream in the woods. I tie it up to my stern and I'm off. I look to try and stash it at the nursery or her parents house. The water at the house is flowing too much for me to want to try it, even though there is a section that is only 3" underwater. I can't find anything at the nursery that I can put it on. So I head back to GG's house. On my way back, I kayaked over the bed of a full size pickup truck. The windshield was 1/2 underwater. I get there, pull the kayak onto the deck (above water) and tie the canoe up in the water. Success, no cops, no rescue, no death, not yet at least. The water I'm sure is contaminated w/ heating oil and sewage and god knows what else. So if my legs fall off tomorrow, we'll know why. I go inside, do a couple things, look in the basement. I can see 3 steps, that's it. I leave, lock up.

I give GG a call when I get back to my car. She's on her way down from her boyfriend's grandma's house where she is staying, remember, no elec, no septic, god knows what chemicals. She shows up and we take a walk back to her house. The water is about one foot up the foundation. It's reaching the windows in the basement. She said it looks like the water has dropped about 5" already.

I come home shower and start vacuuming my house more. Good times. I'll try to make this a little more interesting w/ pics soon. Right now, it's just a story, if not boring, but a good distraction from work.