Sunday, Dave tried to go check on his dad’s house, but the road was blocked 3 houses before by police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. Dave got out of his truck and asked a fireman if he could get to his house, and was told that he couldn’t because some guy went berserk with a gun. Dave parked his truck in the nearby church parking lot, and soon the whole neighborhood was blocked off by even more police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. He waited for an hour, talking on the phone while he waited, but nothing got cleared up, so he returned home. We watched the news but never did see anything about what happened. I decided that, since I had Monday off (and Tuesday, too), I would go check on it for him.
I stopped at Panera for lunch before heading out there, and it just so happens that a girl I work with, Kristy, lives in that neighborhood. So, I asked her if she knew what had happened, and she said it actually happened to her friend. Her friend was putting sandbags up in his yard, because the Green River was rising with risk of flooding. A guy went and asked him to move his truck, and friend said he would. A few minutes later, the guy came back with a gun and started firing at friend and others who were helping. From what I understand, nobody got hurt, but the guy did get arrested.
So, I headed out to the house, with renewed hope that the guy didn’t go berserk there. I checked on the Vette and all was well, then I went to check on the basement.
Dave had intended to check on the basement, because the last time he had been out there, there was a few damp spots and he was concerned about a leak somewhere.
I opened the door, and saw about 2 to 3 inches of water in the basement. “Oh, fuck,” I thought. I walked around the whole basement, and it was all flooded, up to about 3 inches in the center.
I called Dave to let him know, and he said he’d come out on his lunch break. Then I called Ronda and she said she’d come out to help me figure out what to do.
She arrived, and we speculated that there should be a sump pump, especially if the house is in a flood plane, which it must be with the rising river across the street. We couldn’t find a sump pump, but there was a hole we initially thought was for a sump. She called a plumber and they said it’d be $350 to install a sump, if the piping was already there. I called Scott’s friend Doug to see if he might know anything about this to help us out, and he said he’d be able to bring us out a pump to suck the water out. We canceled the plumber for the time being so we could further analyze the situation.
* Back track when we first got Kathie out of the house: Upon entry, clear signs of previous water damage, including the smell of mold throughout the basement. *
We got most of the water sucked out of the basement that night, and headed home. The hole we had thought was for a sump really wasn’t, it looks more like some sort of pressure release system to keep the basement floors from cracking if water saturated the ground under the house. Unfortunately, that is exactly where the water is coming from, that hole.
The next day, Ronda had gone out there to check on things, only to find even more water down there than had been there Monday. She got most of it sucked out, and we talked about what to do that evening. We stopped by Meghan’s house to borrow a huge shop vac, and headed out to the house. We measured the hole and then went to Farm and Fleet to get some things to try and plug it, but they didn’t fit right… and the light bulb in the small room where the hole is burned out, so we left without really doing anything.
Wednesday evening, we went out to check on things again, but all was pretty much fine. No new water, just lots of mold smells.
Yesterday, with Tom in town, the boys went out to try and clean up the mess a bit. Dave had pulled a corner up and realized there was sponge-like padding under the carpet. The two of them pulled all the carpet up from the basement and got it outside.
A plumber is supposed to come out this afternoon to see about fixing this mess… here’s hoping…
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