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pkramer60

Be careful what you wish for. (Long)

pkramer60
15 years ago

In no way is this meant to detract what those in the path of Ike have gone through...

Friday evening Dad and I were sitting on the patio, enjoying a gentle rain and I mutter "wouldn't this be lovely if there were a lake back there?" Yeah, well, we had 9.94 inches of rain in 24 hours.

We had planned to leave Saturday morning for a weeks vacation in Michigan, stopping first to surprise Annie at her celebration, then head north for the Charlevoix area. When I got up a 5 am, I saw that the front garden and the street were under water. Crap! The basement! Double crap, ok, I said something differant! Six inches front to back under water, stuff floating. By 7 am, the pump had done its job and we started to salvage things. Weatherman was calling for more, so I knew we were not leaving. Cancelled the hotel near Annie, called the rental house to delay our arrival on Sunday and went back to the basement.

Around 9 am, the rain started again and didn't stop until 3 pm. I mean heavy down pours. We pushed water to the pump hoping to keep up but about an hour later, we gave up. The sewers were full, so no toilet flushing, and the water rushing around the house was so strong, I pulled the cars from the garage at the back to higher ground and we opened the doors to let it flow on further. Patio started to wash out and the pond disappeared and the fish swam out. Thankfully I could grab them and we fenced it off with heavy lawn chairs.

In between I kept checking the weather channel for Ike updates and our weather too, I called our Riverrat and Mustang-Cathyfor news. By 5 pm, and 3 heavy duty pumps, the water is out. At 7, the city sewer crew showed up to help drain the street. The night was dry.

Good things from this:

Dilly can swim!

The freezers are all working.

We have hot water and a furnace.

Basement needed cleaning anyway.

The garage floor is washed now.

I don't need to water the garden.

Met a new neighbor.

Dad at almost 81 is a marvel!

Bad things:

vacation is probably cancelled.

It is raining again, should get another 6 inches from Ike today.

I haven't checked the washer and dryer yet.

The worst:

I missed seeing Annie and Elery! But I did get to talk to her, thanks to 2 other "surprise" guests that called me. I will let Annie tell who they were.

I took photos when I could, so take a peak.

Here is a link that might be useful: Water, water, everywhere!

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