Andrew and Brenda

Well, as of this afternoon, we’ve gotten both houses cleaned up from the flood. In fact, both basements probably haven’t been this clean in decades. While all of this has really been difficult, I honestly think it’ll all work out fine. We ended up taking care of a lot of things we’d been putting off. And hey, we don’t have to go through the trouble of a yard sale anymore!

Right now, all we can do is wait for our State Farm check to start replacing stuff. Unfortunately, due to our deductibles on both houses, we’ll probably have to cough up the cash for the Front Street furnace ourselves. Oh well. Better than having to pay for it all.

FEMA has also been over to Scammel, and did their inspection. Unfortunately, they won’t cover “contents” either, so all that stuff is just gone. But the good news is that they should give us money for the washer and dryer. Hopefully it will all even out. I’ll just be glad to be able to take a shower in our own house again.

Big THANK YOU’s go out to Grandma and Grandpa Jones for the use of their shower, Grandma and Grandpa Cooper for the hip waders and hose, Mom and Parke for the sump pump, food and labor, and especially big thanks to Deb and Mom and Dad McCutcheon for the HUGE help in the cleanup of both houses. Couldn’t have done it without them.

PS: Nine days later, our “official” city site doesn’t say the word ‘flood’ once. Thanks a bunch.

Well, you can scratch what I said in that last post. Hurricane Ivan hit us in a big way. Thanks to our local media and the incompetence of the National Weather Service (what they’re calling a “simulation glitch”), the river actually crested Sunday afternoon at forty-five feet, much higher than expected. It was at about 41 feet when the house on Front Street had six inches, and the new house on Scammel started getting water through the basement drain. That was Saturday (9/18/04).

Saturday we watched the water creep up Scammel Street, and our neighbor was already pumping water from his basement. However, our drain plug seemed to be holding and I really thought we’d be fine. I was stressed to the max, checking the basement a couple times an hour, and staying glued to the tv and radio. Nobody’s reports seemed to mesh with each other, and the lack of “official” announcements on the internet were frustrating to say the least.

I ended up just taking a chance on it and went to bed at 11:30 crossing my fingers. At 3:00am, I went downstairs to find water gushing down the basement steps! At that point, it was much too late to save anything, so all I could do was wade through 6 inches of freezing cold water to turn the pilot off on the hot water heater. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep after that. There’s something really disconcerting about hearing stuff falling over and bumping into each other as it floats around.

Long story short (too late), the river crested at 45 feet and we had about 4-5 feet of water on Scammel, about 5-6 feet on Front. Both furnaces and hot water heaters shot. When I opened the door to see that water, it was like I’d been hit with a cannonball. So right now, we’re gearing up to start the cleanup process. We have no hot water and only partial electric, as I had to shut some of it down because it shared the furnace circuit.

Now I’m really glad I didn’t dispute our new house being in the flood plain. Below are some of the pics:

Scammel Street: Basement steps
Scammel Street: Back and side yards
Scammel Street: Front of house
Scammel Street: Alley beside house
Front Street: Water in basement (this was after the water had gone down 2 feet. Note the distinct water line.)

Thanks to the rain Hurricane Ivan brought our way, much of downtown Marietta is underwater as I write this. At about 1:00 this afternoon, our old house on Front Street had about six inches of water in the basement. So I put trash bags on my feet and went down to bring a few boxes and what-not upstairs. Based on where they’re saying it will crest tomorrow, the water in the basement could be waist-high. I sure hope not, as that will probably mean a ruined furnace and hot water tank. Just what we need.

Then when I got home from that fiasco, I found that water was already flowing up from the drain in our new house. Thankfully I think the drain plug is actually working and I’ve gotten it to stop. Just have to keep my fingers crossed until it crests tomorrow afternoon.

More updates on this debacle as it unfolds, plus Monday is ultrasound day, so we’ll have a full report on that as well. To see the current flood level downtown, click here.