...such an attractive entry room, it must be heartbreaking to see it flooded.. I know I would be beside myself totally over that.. so like everyone else, I'm so sorry...

...scant consolation, but I hope it gives bounty to your roses and wildlife around there...

I’m sorry about your flooding :( i was on the freeway this morning during that big cloudburst and I definitely regretted leaving the house. I saw someone‘s bumper floating down the river that used to be the street in front of my work!

Oh Ingrid, I am so sorry! It is hard having your house "torn up" whether by a disaster or just remodeling. I hope things get better soon. It has been an unusual winter.

This is so frustrating. All of this desperately needed water causing so much damage. I hope you are able to save what is most important to you and that all of this precipitation gives the land a deep, thorough soaking with lasting benefits.

Perhaps it will help some of the natural habitat to grow and flourish so the bunnies won’t need to eat at your place quite so much.

Oh Ingrid, I am so sorry. What a devastating year for California. My heart breaks for all of you dealing with natures wrath.

I agree to remove your rug to a professional and get it dried out

Blessings, but not showers of blessings . Nice warm sunny drying blessings .

Around here this has turned out to be what I would have said 10 years ago and before that for the previous 50 years, is a "normal winter". Tons of rain, and in our hilly county, large trees falling and mud slides after the ground gets saturated. Yesterday in Sausalito, which for those of you who are not familiar with it is a little town perched on a very steep hillside just North across the Golden Gate from San Francisco, at 3AM part of the hill slid down a block, taking 2 entire houses with it. They are now just kindling buried in the mud. Astonishingly, no one was killed, although they did have to dig one homeowner (who, of course, had been asleep) out who was half buried in the mud. They evacuated 50 nearby houses.

I can remember this sort of thing happening for my whole life here, just not in the past few years.

Ingrid, so sorry you are being badly affected by this rain too - hope that lower area of your house can be cleaned out successfully. Lucky the floor is not wood, and probably just needs to be washed. Your lovely china collection should be OK, too. Please let us know how you are faring with the cleanup.

Jackie

Gosh, you guys never seem to get a break. First drought, then fires, then deluges of rain and now landslides. Oh, and lets throw in an earthquake now and then for good measure. I think I'll keep my 5 to 8 inches of snow, thank you very much. Thinking of all of you. Stay safe!

Oh, Jackie -- You guys have gotten so much more rain than we have, in our protected little valley!

Ingrid, I'm sorry to hear of the flooding... I hope your beautiful home will be restored as quickly as possible, and that you'll be able to salvage many of your belongings. Best wishes for you and Cecil during this stressful time.

I hope you are hanging in there, Ingrid and Cecil. Feeling for you both.

I'm so sorry to hear about yet more devastation hitting California, particularly something that we as gardeners would like to be able to enjoy - rain to a drought-parched region. Too much too fast of anything and it becomes a problem, and layered on top of the other problems you've had this has to be exhausting. We'll be thinking of you and hope the damage is relatively minimal.

Cynthia

Seil, yes - the old joke around here is that we are only missing swarms of locusts.

Jeri, yes, we usually get more rain here. This year YTD as of yesterday, the town I live in is 4 inches OVER our normal YTD total of about 25 inches. (They now start counting on Oct 1). Our normal total per year is between 30 and 35 inches - we will be way over, from the way things are going. Today it has been: sunny, raining hard, and hailing, depending on which 10 minute period you look at.

Jackie

Thank you all so much for your kind support and friendship. I thought this would be a relatively simple procedure, but no such luck. There's talk of possible mold forming under the drywall, and apparently the baseboards and some of the walls will have to be taken out. The huge and noisy dehumidifiers will have to be on, day and night, for at least another two days and the noise is giving me a headache that I can't get rid of. Today they've added a third noisy machine, an air purifier I think. However, when I think of what Beth and her neighbors went through and are no doubt still experiencing in the aftermath of the Camp fire, this in comparison shrinks down to nothing.

Sorry to hear of all the mess it made. The equipment sounds super annoying. Mold is nothing to mess with though. It can cause all kinds of health issues which neither of you need. I am glad you are taking care of it swiftly. Your poor kitty must be confused over what craziness is going on lol.

Praying for the best Ingrid, but remember however upsetting, it’s only temporary.

You will persevere, in time :)

jackie, that sounds like FL weather

By interesting coincidence, this year we are trying to find out just what our rainfall actually is. Nearby in San Jose, the yearly average is 15 inches. (That is average, not normal, as it is normal for rainfall to vary wildly from year to year.) We live in hills about 12 miles away from the place where NOAA measures it, and for years my husband has been insisting that he thinks we get more than they report. We bought a rain gauge and have been tracking it. He is right, at least he is right this year. As of today, San Jose has had 11 inches of rainfall and we have had 22 inches. BTW, SJ is at 112% of average for this point in the rain season. I am making a leap of faith that we probably are as well, and that we both are likely to get a bit more before we are done for the year.

For me so far, the rain has been happy news. I'm hoping our area can replenish the water table. There is no flooding or landslide in my immediate area. I do know this is not true for everyone. Too much water and not enough water are both bad things.

Lauren Springer Austin wrote an article a number of years ago for Horticulture magazine titled Between Drought and Deluge, which I read with particular attention after I moved here and plants suffered or died in the drought, and then rotted in a particularly wet monsoon year. It was an article on what plants survived her swings between flooding and extreme dryness. Ingrid, it sounds like you are caught in that pendulum swing also. My sympathies and best wishes.

So sorry Ingrid....its tough. I'm in the Houston area and have seen what flooding can do. Sever friends had damage and it took FOREVER to get things back in order and many had to spend quite a bit out of pocket. Hope things work out better for you.

I'm sorry to hear about this Ingrid. I do hope you get some amazing spring roses. Last time the pineapple express visited us, my roses were very grateful. Hope your bunnies get beautiful green foliage to munch out in the wild. The surrounding hills must be beautiful right now. Wish you could just take in the beauty without the concern about your home. I watched that storm come in and saw how much was concentrated at San Diego county. It was something.

Ingrid, if that pretty rug is a wool rug, I think it has a good chance of recovery. Wool rugs are generally cleaned in water (not steam). If you can get it quickly to a person who cleans rugs, you may with luck find that it comes back to you as good as ever. My fingers are crossed for you.

We had flooding in a previous house once after a torrential rain. Men came in with big machines that sucked up the water, then they cleaned the floors. Fortunately there was no lasting damage, not even mold. But I'll bet you're already on this, and I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

Anyway, wishing you the best of luck in restoring your house. (And the roses will no doubt be happy.)

The two rugs that were soaked are both hand-knotted wool rugs and I know they are washed after weaving, so hopefully they can be salvaged. If I take them to be professionally cleaned I doubt that we will be reimbursed so I'm letting these people take care of it. If not satisfied I can take further steps. It's weird but I'm much more used to the noise today. They are coming by tomorrow to check on things and we'll know more then. I so appreciate your concern, but I'm sure it's true that the roses and everything else in the garden will benefit greatly by this rain. I took a close look at our cedar trees the other day and was disheartened to find that they seem to be in very bad shape, only a thin layer of green on the outside and underneath everything is dead. We have about 18 cedars and this is not good news. I'm afraid there are rough times ahead for many of us, and I worry especially about the forested areas in many western states where the trees are dying in record numbers. I hope that this rainy winter will be a help to some degree.

I'm glad to hear cleanup is progressing, Ingrid. I can't wait for the rose and garden pictures this Spring. So sorry you and Cecil have such a hassle.

Ingrid, I have had my house flood three times (plumbing issues not Mother Nature). Talk to your insurance company. They should pay for you to stay at a hotel (all expenses paid) along with meals. Oh, Lord! It is hailing here again! Anyway, I know what those machines sound like and it is like living on an airplane tarmac. So talk to them and see if you can get into a hotel for a night or two so you can get some rest. I stayed in one that had a kitchenette so I was able to make my own food there rather than eat out every meal. I wish you nothing but the best. I do know what this is like and having to had drywall replaced, etc. I have had three different floors put in my house due to flood damage. Not the best way to get new flooring!

One thought - having had our basement flood every summer whenever we had more than an inch of rain because three other yards slope into ours - when you replace the drywall, be sure they install it with about two inches of clearance off the floor. If you put the base boards in front of it you can't tell, but the drywall now no longer contacts the floor and the water has to get deeper than 2" to affect the drywall. We had to pull off paneling that was absolutely black with mold and get whole house mold treatment, but it was worth it in the long run. Even more worth it was getting a channel put in the basement by the pros so that any water that comes in the basement gets whisked away. It's such a relief not to have to pull the wet vacs and sit up all night emptying out water when it rains.

Glad that your lovely rug can be salvaged! Hang in there and do keep fans on the wet walls when you get a chance. Sometimes if they dry out well enough in the first couple of days you don't get the kind of problems you get if the water sits on the drywall longer.
Cynthia

mustbenuts, you've had horrible luck with flooding! I'm not sure how you kept your sanity through that many occurrences. We did turn off the fans for a few hours tonight, and fortunately we can hear very little in our bedroom. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to have them turned off tomorrow. Thank you, Cynthia, for your tip about beginning the drywall several inches off the floor. I would be ecstatic if there were no mold under the drywall but am afraid to hope. I certainly wouldn't want black mold underneath there, that just gives me the shivers. What a good thing that you were able to resolve that problem!

I don't think insurance will help, unless you have flood insurance (I think normal homeowners only covers water damage if it is caused by rain which comes in from a hole or other damage to the roof which was caused by wind). Actual flood insurance is available through the Govt, but you can get it endorsed onto your homeowners policy through your normal insurance broker. They handle the getting from and paying for it to the Govt.

We have gotten over 6 inches if rain here in the past week, and it is still raining today. As of yesterday, we are at 125% of "normal" YTD. Tomorrow is the first day, and the last day for another week, when the weather forecast is just "Sunny". Our great nephew is coming over again to help us with clean up in the garden tomorrow morning, after being frustrated by rain the last 3 times he was going to. I have already emailed him that we will NOT be walking or putting anything heavy on the beds, but we are so far behind this year that there is plenty to do which can be accomplished while just reaching the plants when kneeling on the sidewalk, driveway, or gravel paths. Good news - the weeds will just jump out of the soil!

Jackie

We are apparently covered for every contingency apart from the co-pay, Jackie. I hope there won't be any unpleasant surprises.

As much as we need the rain it must be frustrating for you not to be able to take care of the outside areas as you would like. For you more than for us it's been too much of a good thing, other than the flood damage here. It remains to be seen how much more rain we'll have this spring.

Sorry to hear this Ingrid. What a painful process. Hope everything goes well with recovery. You're on a hill, I'd think if you have a 1-2' tall concrete/block wall on the back and both sides of your house (run longer than your house) like a hard u shape (l_l), the water would run down the hill without entering your house. Not a pro, but there should be a way to stop this from happening.

Oy vey! When they took off the drywall they also found that we have termites.

summers, we will have the drainage problem taken care of also. The concrete walkway which sloped toward the house will be raised and there will be drains placed down to the bottom of the hill into the drainage ditch at the side of the road. I must forsooth give up my dreams of diamonds and fur coats for these more mundane considerations.

Great news, Ingrid!

Insurance reps: people who I hope I never have to talk to but pray are wonderful when I do.

So with termites does that now count as the swarms of locusts that were the only things missing?

Heartiest sympathies on this additional bad news of course. We are now hoping that each new day doesn't bring new bad news.

Cynthia

Well, Cynthia, we're hoping that Fate is finished with us for the moment, and today was uneventful, so fingers crossed. I'm going to dream about the absolutely fabulous roses that this wonderfully wet winter is going to bring us, and look forward to having three roses I haven't seen bloom in my garden, Evelyn, Plum Perfect and Coquette des Blanches, and welcoming back Spice, a rose I was very fond of in the past and am delighted to have again.

I don’t know how I missed the termite post. Sorry for saying “great news” right after that.

So sorry for your troubles, Ingrid. I’m sure you’ve been watching the weather forecasts closely. I know we’re in for one more rainstorm starting this afternoon and lasting through all of Thursday. I’m not sure how much rain is predicted, but it doesn’t appear to be a small amount. It’s supposed to be the coldest rainstorm we’ve had yet. After this storm, it looks like we stay chilly but dry for at least the next 7 days. I’m sure you’re preparing. I know I’m not going to let myself be caught off guard this time.

Thanks for the advice about wedging plastic bags under the doors. I was just about to the point of wedging them in last time, when the rain suddenly stopped. The potential disaster was averted last week, but I have the supplies ready should it threaten again. Hang in there! The skies are already turning dark. Lisa

Oh no! More rain?! Here is what I found, you could seal the doors with duct tape, so the water won't go in.

"To keep water from coming in at the doors, duct tape a plastic sheet near the bottom of the door and secure the sheet in place by duct taping a board at the bottom of the door. Use the duct tape to repair any rips in the plastic sheeting as well."

https://www.hunker.com/12611720/can-duct-tape-keep-flood-water-from-entering-a-house

So sorry to hear about your flooding and termites Ingrid! I hope everything is resolved quickly and you don’t have anymore flooding. I know when my home flooded it was a nightmare and I didn’t have flood insurance so that added extra stress in a already stressful situation. The one thing I will never forget was I was so focused on trying to Keep the water from coming in through the door before I realised it was coming through the walls too, at that point it was useless to keep blocking doorways. I hope you have access to sand bags and are able to sandbag the side of your home that flooded. Good luck with everything.

County schools are closed here in TN tomorrow because of flooding.

cant escape this storm!

It looks like very cold weather again over large areas of the eastern US and Canada, and I hope all of you in that area stay safe. Also lots of rain in the southeast, as jc_7a has mentioned. A few minutes ago we just had a terrific hailstorm. The snow level is down to 2000 feet and we're at 1700 feet so it's quite cold here too.

Lisa, I hope everything is okay at your home and that you and the kitties are doing well. I hope that your lingering flu has finally abated.

Saying prayers for safekeeping for all of you in this severe weather! Keep us posted! :-)

We also had hail.

Oh, gosh. I hope it is over now, or soon will be.

It is frightening because one no longer knows what to expect, other than that weather conditions are going to be ever more extreme. We're entering uncharted territory in regard to future weather patterns.

I think they are trying to flood as many fields as they can before the snow starts melting to recharge the aquafer. I know there was some money for that in that last water bill. Hopefully they can get enough water soaked in ahead of time that there isn’t crazy flooding. I remember living by the Kings growing up and a few times we had 4 feet deep of river in the front yard where our lawn usually was. Our rosebushes definitely died after that.

Actually the farmers in the middle/west side of the Central Valley were told they would only get 30% of their water this year. They stated that might change but for now, only 30%. I know that the flood district is releasing water from the dams into the canals and ponding basins right now in anticipation of the wet weather to come and the snow melt down the road. I just hope that we are able to get more water back into the aquifer. That is where it is needed as we are literally sinking from over pumping from the ag industry here.

We are due for our 200 year flood soon. The last one happened in 1862. Sacramento was under water for six months. There are pictures of the event that shows people getting around downtown Sacramento in row boats! I believe there were several straight days of warm rain that came after heavy snows. That melted the snow and caused the flooding. It was quite the event. They had to move the capital of California from Sacramento to San Fran during this event due to the flooding. We had a disaster drill on it at work last year as a way of prepping for it. The pictures they showed us from it were amazing.

We have a lot more ponding basins, canals, they have been building up the levy's, etc., since that time. We just had the person from the water district at our training last week (master gardener training). The pictures of all of the canals, underground systems, ponding basins, etc., was very interesting to show how they move the water around in the city. He spoke to us about that they are already releasing water from the dams and into the canals in preparation for this week's storms. We are not supposed to get hit as hard as Sacto/SF area, so I am sure they are doing the same up there in anticipation.

Hope everyone stays safe and drives very carefully over the next week or so.

How weird is that, only 30% of the water for farmers when this seems to be a record year for rainfall???

I hadn't heard about the flooding of Sacramento in 1862. What a miserable event that must have been for its citizens. Not that four feet of water in the front yard is much better. I don't want to even think about a coming 200-year flood. With the population we have now it would be a horrific disaster,

Great Flood of 1862

Here is a good article on it. LA got 66 inches of rain that year, in a couple of months

That area was underwater in that flood too, the dam was built more recently so those floods were much more mild than the natural flood cycles. Plus I’m pretty sure my family that was already here in the 1860s was living in sacramento too :)

Back then there was huge lake in the central valley as well that caught the water and recharged the aquifer instead of storing the water in mountain reservoirs like we do now.

Yup Amanada. The central valley used to be a flyway for many migrating birds. Since the water was drained for farmland, not so much now.