Our flooded house seemed like a big deal until this week...

[LeeH]

We woke up 4/16/08 when our daughter came in our room at 0600 to inform us that our house was filled with water. It was. The compression fitting on the dishwasher came loose and there was 2" of standing water thoughout the house. I shut it off and used my 5 gallon shop vac to remove 50 gallons of water while waiting for Serv-Pro to arrive with the heavy equipment.

State Farm has been great so far. We were in a hotel until the repair estimate went to around 3 weeks. Now we're in a condo. We've been dealing with a "disaster recover" contractor that State Farm recommended. The whole this has been incredibly stressful. This week, it all suddenly seemed so trivial...

A few days ago I was at the house gathering stuff to haul to the condo. I heard sirenes. I went outside to see a firetruck and ambulance two doors down at my 50-something neighbor's house. By the time I got back from the 2 mile trip to the condo the emergency vehicles were gone.

Yesterday I saw my neighbor's son pulling out of the driveway. He informed me that his dad had had a major stroke and emergency brain surgery. The docs aren't sure if he's going to make it. Suddenly a couple of hundred gallons of water seemed like nothing.

[Komenda Fan]

Thanks man. I'm going through what seems like tremendous stress with the ex-wife, its nice to be reminded that in reality, there are worst things...

[Jeff]

A couple weeks ago, I had to call 911 for my neighbor as she was having a massive heart attack. She had a 4 by-pass the next day.

A couple days later, another neighbor (40 w/ kids) had to be taken to the hospital because her lungs were filled with fluid. She was put in a medically induced coma and strapped to a rotating beds to drain her lungs. She is out of the coma now but, the doctors think she may have slight brain damage.

Life is a gift. Enjoy it to the fullest and tell the ones you love how you feel often.

[Zeke]

Sorry about the flood. It's everyone's nightmare and when it happens, you house goes on some sort of "housefax" for potential mold. So, you need the completion papers,

One thing I don't understand is how a house can hold up to 2" of water. Are the door sills that tight? I guess we ought to think about floor drains and pans under the water heater, washer and DW.

[Racerbvd]

My house flooded yesterday too, Still cleaning up.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by milt

Sorry about the flood. It's everyone's nightmare and when it happens, you house goes on some sort of "housefax" for potential mold. So, you need the completion papers,

One thing I don't understand is how a house can hold up to 2" of water. Are the door sills that tight? I guess we ought to think about floor drains and pans under the water heater, washer and DW.

You're probably right... it was around 1" in most places 1.5" near the source and in the low spots (seemed like 2 feet that morning). We know where all of the low and high spots are in the house now. Fortunately I don't think it was running for more than an hour or two at the max. I can tell you I won't have any more compression fittings on plastic hose in my house. The guy who owns the Serv-Pro franchise said that he'll retire off of compression fitting and old toilets. I switched the dishwasher source line out (the source of our flood) to the steel braided stuff and will do the same with the ice-maker source line before it all goes back together.

The insurance agent's rep told me about the database. Fortunately we caught everything so early nobody involved is worried about mold. The only place anyone seemed concerned about was under the kitchen cabinets. There was a few inches worth found when they pulled the cabinets out, but it was very light and disappeared when they sprayed it with their chemicals.

No new news on my neighbor. I guess the family is all hanging out at the hospital. He was a project manager for Computer Associates who had been downsized recently. I had just helped him set up an LLC so he could go freelance. His wife doesn't work... can't imagine what they're going through right now. I sure hope he was covered under COBRA.