Soggy Indeed

As you've noticed from this blog, I tend to process and understand some things in life through writing. Today's post is no exception. Andy is in Georgia for two weeks. One week has gone by and I sneaked in a village work trip during that, and I leave for a visit to MN before he returns. I planned other distractions like happy blog-posting (which I'll still do), reorganizing my recipes (okay, more necessary than fun), and some pampering. So Saturday started with a pedicure. As I drove home from that pampering, up our hillside neighborhood, it hit me how much rain had poured the night before and that morning. The ditches and culverts were bursting with new, gushing streams going down hill.



My friend and neighbor Naomi texted asking how I was doing, and our house with the rain. I went around inside and out and all looked tight. Except for the puddle "lake" growing behind my neighbor's, on our zero-lot line. 



Andy's room at the military base does not have cell service so we began to Skype and I described all the rain we received. That's when it occurred to me I needed to check the crawl space too. Before I even got that far, I believe God sent Naomi over to me for the day as she was at my door insisting we check that crawl space. Thanks to her, I never had to face anything alone yesterday. She was decisive, quick to action and available to give hours of hands on help for what we were about to discover.



It was hard to determine how much water had flooded until we went down there (and I ended up only doing one cursory and heart-stricken trip to the crawl space. I was forbidden to climb in and out after that, and do any major heavy lifting. That killed me). There was water on top of the plastic covering the ground, but the plastic was floating up with most of the water beneath. Every step we took had to be careful to avoid unnecessary water movement and rushing from one area to another.

Part of the Christmas area where, thankfully, most ornaments are in plastic containers

Here's me in my Bogs--Naomi used my Xtra Tuffs-and when we moved by one another one time I had water spill in. Bye bye pedicure!

Andy stayed on Skype standby for hours to receive my updates. Once he got the bad news he tried getting out texts to the Troopers. I never had to stop and call anyone. People came quickly and I had 8 people (and a baby!) helping at some point. Naomi stayed down below with two others as they removed the light and dry stuff stacked on top of others. For the water-logged, tearing boxes beneath, we hoisted empty rubbermaids down there and they just emptied wet contents into the containers to bring up to the garage. The garage is an interesting disaster of drying out stuff...from decorative 4th of July flags hanging to art supplies, and *hopefully* salvaged baseball cards, Andy's high school diploma, etc. etc.

Water caused stacks to become tippy, or boxes just to float

I got to damp photos early on and we covered the kitchen and living room surface areas with photos galore. Most are saved.

I feel more prepared to tackle emergency situations in the future, hopefully not needed. And got some hard-knocks lessons too (like packing everything in plastic containers...and don't procrastinate on doing something with scrapbooks and photo albums--even if you don't have actual house space for that stuff!)


Andy's LT brought over a pump and hose from the Academy and within 4-5 hours the space was free of water. Our buddy Lance climbed around last night making sure it reached the far and dark corners. Fans are blowing down there now.


The main thing is that it's all out...I can dry out, clean where possible and then will repack eventually. Don't want mold and mildew now. Our house structure is dry and strong...the other main thing. I'm so glad we discovered early Sat. so I have all weekend. The City is aware that a better drainage route is needed up and behind us. They already jerry-rigged something to divert the rain scheduled for at least a week. We weren't the only ones. I heard one trailer court below us had river gushing streets.


I can't express (and Andy too) enough our appreciation for the all the help! Even to the plate of dinner I was brought, the hauling away of destroyed items and trash, and checking-in phone calls. This home alone preggers lady is so grateful. Alaskans are first-rate helpers to one another, especially when families are often far away. 


*Amy