Labor Day weekend flash flood

On Friday evening we allowed Drew to invite a big group of friends over for pizza and video games. He frequently feels quite sorry for himself that Gracie and Luke have friend plans constantly while he is not quite old enough to be on the go with his group just yet. Since G and L were off with friends that evening and we had no plans, I sent a text to five other fifth grade parents, and a couple of hours later we had a house full of high- energy ten year old boys.

Right before everyone was due to arrive, sirens started wailing in the area. The sky was very dark for 5:00. My phone began warning me that we were under a tornado and flash flood and severe thunderstorm warning. We took shelter for a bit until the tornado warning was lifted. I checked in with the other moms and, surprisingly, everyone wanted to proceed with the plans, though I had been sure they would not want to drive out in the storm. (I learned a while ago that most people are more casual about storms than I am. Severe storms have given me some scary moments over the years. After our lightning/down wire/ ten fire trucks here situation a few months ago, the kids and I are still all a little on edge in severe weather.)

As friends dropped kids off, they told me of flooded roadways. The neighborhood Facebook page showed pictures of cars right near our old house with water up to the door handle. Our community Facebook page had pictures of houses with water rushing through backyards like a river and flooding in basements through windows. Ben left to go pick up the massive amounts of pizza we ordered and I sent the boys to the basement to try to get them away from Auggie and Bear who were in quite a state between the storms, the doorbell ringing five times, and the noisy boys. I was in the kitchen putting the dogs in their crates when the little boys all yelled out from the basement stairs. I went to see what was wrong and my stomach dropped. We had inches of standing water in our basement.

We often get a little water in the unfinished part of the basement when it storms heavily. I've heard it is a rare old home in Webster that has a dry basement during our frequent flash flood warnings. Usually the water is limited to our laundry area and travels from the exterior door to the drain in the middle of the room. Usually it just means a couple of extra loads of laundry for me and some mopping. This time there was just so much water so quickly that it traveled out of the laundry room and into the finished area.

The next three hours were pretty unpleasant. While still entertaining a house full of boys, now unable to be sent to the basement kid zone of the house, and while still listening to two loudly- sad puppy dogs, we had to start to clean up the mess somehow. I began to shop vac in the basement while Ben went outside to unclog the exterior drain near where the water had come in. The entire evening was spent sucking up water with the vac and trying to clean up the laundry room, a dirty mess. My mop was brown. After two hours of shop vac use, Ben decided we should switch to a carpet cleaning machine. He rented it from Lowes and we spent another chunk of time taking turns going over the area repeatedly with the machine. We tag- teamed, each running the machine until the tank filled with water before handing it off. We crashed in bed around 11:30, cranky and tired.

We woke up Saturday and were back at it. After a couple of hours, the machine was no longer picking up water but the carpet was still slightly damp. We have three HUGE fans running down there as well as a large dehumidifier. We have the system in the house set to arctic temperatures and a huge fan on the stairs facing up. We have sprinkled entire boxes of baking soda around the room. It feels like a waiting game at this point to see if the carpet will have to be ripped up and replaced or if it will dry completely. It is surprisingly dry to the touch already and there is not a bad smell in the basement.

Not the start to our long holiday weekend that we wanted and another experience to add to our "the-second- half- of- 2019- hasn't- been- the- smoothest" list. (Saturday morning also had us running to pick up Hank at the auto shop where it spent the week being fixed after an accident.  No injuries, just an expensive hassle.)