It started raining Friday, around when the cable guy showed up and just never stopped. We ended up bribing the cable man with a 6 pack of beer to climb up onto the wet roof and install the dish (they are supposed to wait until it’s dry out.) It was either there, or on top of the garage, with a cable running over the yard to the house (ugh). I think if the world starts ending, alcohol could easily become the new currency. It is definitely becoming a luxury item in our house, and we have had positive results with the trash man as well ever since we gave him a 6 pack after he refused to take our trash away two weeks ago.
Anyway, the rain just continued and went on and on. Sunday morning, we woke up, with things starting as usual–vegging on the couch watching CBS Sunday Morning and eating breakfast. Then Thor wandered down to the basement and ruined our peaceful morning.
Two-thirds of basement was flooded. In some places there was an inch of standing water. The water was seeping in through the walls on all sides. After the continual oppressive rain of the past three days, I guess our basement never stood a chance. What a way to discover the basement is not water-proofed at all. We then spent an hour trying to salvage all of our tools and boxes of sopping wet wedding presents which we have yet to open since we’ve had no place for them until now, and pull all of the wood trim out of the water so it doesn’t get warped.
We didn’t have to pump the basement out, all of the water just seeped back into the floor. I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or not. On the one hand, we didn’t have to really clean the water out of the basement. On the other hand, it just continues to enforce the porous nature of this space.
All in all, we are grateful, though. There were a lot of people who suffered a lot worse this weekend. My grandfather who lives in Galveston has probably lost his home (we won’t know for a few more weeks yet), and it will probably be 3 more weeks until my aunt and uncle who live in Houston have power again. So a little water in the basement we can deal with