Water, Water, Everywhere

This morning I woke up a little late, and as I was trying to get Mittens his breakfast, I heard my upstairs neighbor call me from the basement. So I went to the door, and she told me the basement was flooded. CRAP. I went down my 4 steps to the top of the basement stairs, and she said the water was everywhere. UGH. I went back into my apartment to call my mom and then get dressed, and I headed down there to see how bad it was. Well, it really was a lot worse than the last time it had flooded, which was about 3-4 years ago. The rains we've had in the last few days was part of the problem, but the tree roots in the sewer lines was the biggest reason it backed up. And unfortunately, it'll happen again in another several years. The water was almost 2 inches deep in some areas, and there were a few spots where the water didn't reach (thankfully, my Christmas tree was one of those areas!). I'm glad that all of my Christmas decorations were on a big table in boxes, so none of that got wet or ruined. The only kind of big loss (maybe) are my high school and college yearbooks. They were definitely wet. I've had them standing up on the floor in the computer room all day with a fan going on them. I checked earlier. They are half drying out, and half still wet. I'm not too sure what to do about it yet, but I'll check them again tomorrow.

My upstairs neighbor was not that lucky. She has the big room down there that my mom let her use for storage when she moved in a couple years ago. Well, all her stuff is all over down there, and much of it is wet. She removed about 3 bags of stuff, but I don't know if it even made a dent in the room. I've asked her a couple times if she wanted some help getting rid of stuff, but a part of me thinks that this is going to be an ongoing battle for her to hurry up and throw things away. I just don't want it to start growing mildew or mold or anything. That would smell terrible, and it would be awful for my lungs. I sure hope my mom says something to her about getting it cleaned up asap. Or else it just might not happen.

Both of my parents used the shop vacuum to suck up much of the water after the plumber came and unclogged everything. What I did end up losing was a bunch of empty cardboard boxes that I would save after buying things, like my TV box, a computer box, toaster box, vacuum box, etc, etc. Ummmm, did I REALLY need to be saving all of them?? Nooooooo. So now, my area is actually pretty clean! lol I do have some more things to go through, but at least the majority is all done. Tomorrow is another day to see what else I might be able to throw out!

I do have to say that after dealing with this problem, I realize that in no way does it compare to what is happening down south in in Mississippi and other areas effected by the flooding down there. The amount of water I had in the basement is just nothing compared to what they have. Entire houses are gone. It's incredibly sad. So I count my lucky stars that I did not have to go through what they are trying to cope with, and I pray for them that they are able to rebuild when all the water has receded.