Flood 2005--my experience & pics

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I lost a long messsage today already on this subject, so I just decided to post some pics from the recent flood that devistated our beautiful city (Calgary, Alberta) and many rural adjacent communities along the Elbow and Bow River. A "state of disaster" was declared, but has since been lifted as rains have subsided. The record rainfall for June was 400mm (100 years ago), and this month we received just 12mm short of that record.

After 2 weeks of the deluge, finally our basement flooded on Sat. We have spent the entire week with some very heavy cleaning and reparation--but now it is drying out. We had to do the work ourselves b/c all the crews in town are busy with everyone else''s problem. I am grateful that our entire house was not engulfed like many others--who who lost not only their city home, but their country retirements property as well.

Our rebuilding will be of some duration--we need to find the source of water infiltration and then basement remodeling. Insurance does not cover seepage, but the AB Gov''t has a disaster relief program--hopefully we''ll be able to recoup some of our losses, but I suspect it will be minimal.

Here are some pics of our mess.

cheers--Sharon

 

[canuk-gal]

pic

 

[canuk-gal]

I look dumb here but whatever....

 

[MINE!!]

Canuk-gal..

I am sorry to hear about you losses. It really sucks when flood water catches you unawares. The town I live it was devored by Hurrican Floyd (greenville NC) Many people lost their homes, way of life and infortunatley some their lives. It itakes a long time to recoup after that. Suprisingly, many places and displaced people are still trying to get things back together after 5 years. I am happy that things were not worse for you.

I hope everything goes well for you!

 

[canuk-gal]

corner full of water

 

[aphisiglovessae]

Oh wow, so sorry about your experience. I live in Pensacola and Hurricane Ivan caused us to lose 1/4 of our house (but we''ve rebuilt, for about 20 grand

), so I feel your pain. Hope everything works out for you.

 

[Kaleigh]

Oh Sharon,
That must be awful, I am so sorry!!! But you do look very cute while sucking up the water!!! I hope everything works out for you guys!!!!

 

[Maxine]

Wow.....I am sorry you have to deal with this

.......I spent last hurricane season watching the puddles get higher and closer!!! But thankfully, no damage, though lots of people had some.....Hope you can get over this as soon as possible...NOTHING stops that water from getting EVERYWHERE!!!! Really scary!! Hope it goes well......

 

[flopkins]

Sharon-
I''m sorry to hear about the flooding... you seem to be in good spirits though, despite the insanity - I wish you the best in fixing the house!!

 

[eks6426]

How horrible. I''m glad you didn''t loose everything. You do look very fashionable & in good spirits while cleaning. You could probably hire yourself out to clean up other''s basements with that outfit & attitude and earn enough to restore yours I wouldn''t look half as good or probably have such a nice smile on my face. Good for you!

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 6/23/2005 2:59:23 PM
Author: IslandDreams
How horrible. I''m glad you didn''t loose everything. You do look very fashionable & in good spirits while cleaning. You could probably hire yourself out to clean up other''s basements with that outfit & attitude and earn enough to restore yours I wouldn''t look half as good or probably have such a nice smile on my face. Good for you!

HI:

This is very funny--my husband said the same thing, that I should hire out. But I am just not sure hauling soggy carpets and underlay is my forte.......

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I have appt. for July and Aug. for basement seepage repair people. It is just that busy. We''ll survive and others here have testiified they have too.

cheers--Sharon

 

[jorman]

I am so impressed by your positive attitude about it all! It is good to see a big smile on your face in such a frustrating situation! I am so sorry for you and all the work you are having to do. I hope everything works out and that you are compensated for most of the cost.

 

[royalasschergirl]

WOW! Your post could have been my own! 3 weeks ago we had a major flash flood/thunderstorm and our basement flooded for the first time in the 2 years we''ve been in the house. Our basement is open (it has 2 full sized doors, full windows, etc) and is also where we spend most of our time. The house is about 3,000 sq ft. half upstairs and half downstairs, so it was a lot of space to get ruined. We had to call water relief teams in, they pulled all the carpet and padding, extracted water, and we had to move everything we owned out of the space. We were displaced for just under 2 weeks before new carpet could be purchased and installed.

A week ago today the carpet was put back, and we had friends come over and help move everything back into place -- we ordered pizza and got some beer and tried to make it fun! It was a bad experience, made worse by the fact that none of it is covered by insurance, just like your situation -- even if we had flood insurance they say they don''t cover water that comes from the ground up -- "rising water" only, which is B.S. to me. Water is water, but whatever, that''s a losing battle! So $5K later, we got it cleaned up and got new flooring put in.

We are currently interviewing waterproofing companies to come in and create a drainage system of some sort to try to prevent this going forward. Interestingly, our neighbor told us the girl who sold it to us had the exact same problem before she sold it -- AND SHE DIDN''T DISCLOSE IT! So we are going through our agent and attorney to try to recover the cost of the flooding. I hate that the whole thing happened, but with Adam''s help and loving ways, we worked through it together and made it as peaceful and easy as we could. He''s just the best guy i could have ever asked for.

Hopefully with another $5K investment in the draining/waterproofing system we can take some proactive measures to prevent it from happening again. Best of luck to you, I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!

 

[hlmr]

Hi Sharon:

So sorry to hear of the disaster in Calgary.

I have a friend in Calgary who lost her home a few years back to a fire. Now her new home has been flooded.

You have a great attitude about everything and I hope things will get cleaned up as quickly as possible!

p.s. You do look very cute cleaning up...your husband might be on to something

Heather

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 6/23/2005 4:58:52 PM
Author: royalasschergirl
WOW! Your post could have been my own! I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!

HI:

Isn''t it a business???? Unreal! I must admit I really hoped for a quicker resolution--but with so many others in our predicament or worse, we cannot get appt''s for reclamation assessment for up to 6 weeks!! We can do very little but wait our turn--and I think that is the most frustrating part.

How did they assess water in the drywall? Hand guage? Did that get ruined also??--did they dry it by removing some of iit to circulate the air, or just with fans to the outside?

We''ll do the structural assessment/repair before doing any indoor/basement repairs--I have no intention of living through this again, if I can help it. One thing is for sure, once the outside/foundation stuff is done, I''ll not be laying carpet again. Tile is easier to mop up than soggy carpet!!

BTW, my sons name is Adam--so like you I am partial to "Adam''s"........

cheers--Sharon

 

[Patty]

Wow, Sharon, I''m sorry you are going through this! But like the other said, I admire your attitude! And damn you look good with a wet vac in your hand.

My sister had a creek flood last year that was right next to her house. Her garage flooded and the water went up 32 inches. It totalled both of their cars and ruined a lot of other things in their basement. What a nightmare! As I told her at the time, it could have been worse, but it also could have been better!

 

[Jennifer5973]

Sharon, when iw as a small child, my family experienced a sudden and devastating flood that destroyed our home (we had to be evacuated). Thank God we had insurance...but I can understand how you feel. Hang tough! This too shall pass.

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 6/23/2005 5:01:55 PM
Author: hlmr
Hi Sharon:

So sorry to hear of the disaster in Calgary.

I have a friend in Calgary who lost her home a few years back to a fire. Now her new home has been flooded.

You have a great attitude about everything and I hope things will get cleaned up as quickly as possible!

p.s. You do look very cute cleaning up...your husband might be on to something

Heather

HI:

Oh Heather--how awful for your friend!!! How on earth do they manage?? One disaster in my would be enough!!

Again, thanks everyone for your kind words!!

cheers--Sharon

 

[sevens one]

Geez Sharon, I''m so sorry.
I hope things get resolved for you soon.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 6/23/2005 2:59:23 PM
Author: IslandDreams
You do look very fashionable & in good spirits while cleaning.

lol!

Sorry about your nightmare situation! Good luck to you and everyone in your region.

 

[Daniela]

Wow, I really hope that you manage to get things cleaned up with a minumum amount of frustration. I''ll be thinking of you and all the other people from your area. Keep us posted on how things are going throughout.

 

[hoorray]

Yuck! What a pain! My parents went through something similar in Arizona. They have just recently gotten the flooring back down and the basement useable again. They had to wait for the ground below to dry out since it was coming up from the saturated ground.

GOod luck with it, and I would consider that hiring out option. You''d be in big demand, I bet!