I Don't Think the Heavy Stuff Will Come Down for Quite Some Time Yet

Well, Hanna dumped a LOT of rain in these parts overnight. Well, all day yesterday and then overnight. And, lucky Coopers that we are, we get to experience another rite of passage of East Coast living.

The Dreaded Basement Flood.



Luckily for us, my husband and (unwilling and cranky) children had spent virtually all of our rainy Saturday working to clean up the basement. The kids had gotten so used to playing down there that there were beads and paper and books everywhere and it was a true mess. If they hadn't cleaned up, we would have had some major damage. As it is, only a few rugs and one unpacked box that had some valuable stuff in it (like old yearbooks and coin collections) were damaged.

And then when I told Ana about the flood and how grateful I was for her efforts yesterday, she hopped out of bed to go check it out. Over her shoulder, she asked, "Is this blog worthy?"

Comments

Miri said…
Children participating in a cleanup effort? That is so very blogworthy.

I'm glad your basement didn't take in too much water.

(Does a basement take in water? Or is that just a boat?)
Barb Matijevich said…
I think boats take ON water. But I don't know what basements do. I was kinda hoping they'd just, you know, STAY DRY.

But yeah, it wasn't too bad and it's not like we had two FEET of water or anything. But it's looking like it's going to be a long winter... Sigh.
Jolly Roger said…
I have lived the basement flood - my sympathy!! Yay for the pre-emptive cleaning, are you psychic???
LaDonna said…
Oh, Barb! Living in Fargo, we deal with flooding all the time. The Red River just has no idea how to stay within its banks, particularly in the spring time. Here we have this cool little gadget in our house called a sump pump. (You are probably worldly enough to have heard of them before, but I was completely new to the concept until we bought our house two years ago! I wondered what that ugly black hose was connected to the side of the house and wanted to remove it until my hubby explained its purpose to me.) It sits under our house and then when water pools under the foundation, the pump kicks in pumping the water out to the street. Every house in Fargo is required to have one. The only problem is that sump pumps only last for about 2 or 3 years before you have to replace them, so basements flood here when the owners figure out that they left the pump in for too long.

Glad to hear that nothing too major was ruined (I mean, who wants to relive those big-hair pictures anyway!!).
Hannah said…
To Ana: Yes, dear girl. There is very little, to a writing mother, that is NOT blog worthy. One's only constraint is computer time. :-)

Sorry about your flood. :-(
DK said…
I love your girls. I can already tell they're going to be adults I want to be friends with.

Every house in Chicago has a sump pump. And, if you're smart, an Ace in the Hole. Is this true in New York?

In the second house I lived in when I was growing up, every time it rained even a little, we'd still get two inches of water in the basement (or more) because it would back up through the toilet. That was weird. Also gross.

Down South, apparently, we just don't have basements.
Mrs.Q said…
Good times. I hope you had (have)some wine on hand! Dry thoughts your way...

And again - I do like your kids!
Maybe someone could answer this: why have basements? I'm sure there's an obvious reason why it's not sufficient to just sink piers to bedrock and build a house on top of the piers. But not being a builder by trade, I don't know what it is!
MadMad said…
Oh, basement floods are THE worst! I'm so glad you didn't lose too much. I've yet to trust a basement again, after one particular flood - and it was 11 years ago!