As Jeremy was leaving for the gym at 5:00 AM this morning, he discovered our basement full of water. It's not the first time, but it's been a few years, so we weren't really anticipating it. Thank the Lord, it is not a finished basment!!!
There is over a foot and half of standing water throughout the basement. Jeremy ran a hose out the window and down to the street, and started pumping water out immediately. Then he went to Lowe's and bought 2 more pumps. After 4 1/2 hours, the water no longer rising.
We are not the only ones in the community in this predicament. Annah's school cancelled for the day because there are some rural roads (on bus routes) that are flooded, and also the local sewage system wouldn't be able to handle all the students/staff being there today. Also, Jeremy talked to some neighbors, and we know that at least 3 of our neighbors are also pumping water out of their basements. Seems there may be a drainage problem in our area of town, eh?
I stood on the basement steps this morning and tried to get a few photos without falling in...
In this room, you can see underwater is the antique wood trim from two of the upstairs rooms that Jeremy is renovating. We've been storing a lot of it in the basement.
Our furnace and water heater are both underwater and unable to run. Also, both sets of our washers and dryers (one is in use, and one new-ish and was waiting to be hooked up for use) are sitting in water. Right now it is warm outside (the cause of all this!!!), so we aren't freezing, but Jeremy heard it is supposed to get very cold and windy later today.
The one thing we do use our basement for is laundry. I had done several loads yesterday, and hung a lot of it on drying racks. Also, I had some sorted in piles on the floor and in the canvas bins. So, now some of our clothes are floating around in the mud. The kids are pretty distraught about some of them being their new Christmas clothes, but I keep trying to remind them that they have plenty of clothes.
Hopefully we will be able to get all the water pumped out today while there's still some time left to start cleaning up the mud and mess of it all.
If you would, please pray that none of those big appliances would be ruined!
"For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth...The waters rose greatly on the earth, and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet...Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out....Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark...The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days." --excerpted from Genesis 7
There was at least half an hour of drama this past Saturday night upon trying to pull this very same tooth. She said she was afraid to pull it because she didn't like the blood. So, thankfully it just fell out today! I am not good with handling tooth drama. Ask my mom. ;)
main door to the room
The kids have recently been introduced to [safe] virtual play on the Internet. We gave Annah a Webkinz stuffed pet for her birthday, she received another for Christmas, and Sylvia got a BellaSara puzzle for Christmas. They all included access to a special website where they can care for and play with their pets and do a gajillion other virtual things like games, trivia, chat, etcetera.
