The adventures of GOS

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GOS

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
QQ Supporter
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
21,367
Location
Central Illinois
Just talking out loud here....

So, last Thursday morning, wife and I left at 5AM for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We get about half way down and start getting text messages that there are big storms lining up in my small home town. OK, fine. I start watching the radar on my cell phone and see that torrential rains are sitting over my home, and keep regenerating. Over and over.

Knowing I have a basement and a sump-pump, I get a bit nervous. Then, we get a call from our neighbor who is watching our cats and she says the power just went out. (It remained out for 5 hours) Now, I'm shitting bricks, because if our sump pump can't run, with heavy rains, we get lots of surface drainage that requires our sump pump to get the water out of our basement tile lines.

I'll cut all the drama.

We arrive in Gatlinburg and frantically ask a friend if they can go to our house to see if sump has been running. They tell us the town is flooded and all streets are impassible. The town got 12+ inches of rain in between 2-4 hours. Finally, they get a 4-wheel drive and plow through the water....our basement is flooded, with water literally pouring in. We had 4 foot of water, which would have been much worse had they not began pumping it out with a portable sump. (my neighbor right next to me also has a basement, and he had 9 foot of water (essentially filled it up)

Our little town has been deemed a disaster, and there is actually some relief funds going to be made available. Back to Gatlinburg. Remember, I got up at 4am, and left by 5am on Thursday. After 1 hour at our cabin, we know we have to turn around and go home. I drive, arrive back home at 4:40am, and yes, it's a disaster. We lost everything in our basement. Furnace, hot water heater, washer, dryer, 2 dehumidifiers, dozens of totes with personal items, documents, baby books, 3 crates of my CD/DVD/Blu-ray collection (no, not my prized multi-channel stuff, which I keep upstairs). Tons of clothes, blankets, pillows, christmas stuff, on and on and on.

I never went to bed on Friday and continued to clean up our basement until Friday night...then I finally crashed.

Some lower income housing is a 100% loss. Those were in a lower lying area of town, and flooded the lower floors, literally caving in walls with the flood waters. People are sleeping in the street because they don't have family, and they don't have money. What a mess.

We gutted out basement, and tomorrow the city is going to start picking up peoples damaged stuff and hauling it off.

This is just crazy. Oh, and if you're wondering, no home owners insurance does not cover any of this. Folks in Illinois don't ever even consider specific flood insurance. Which, leaves us out of luck. We'll see what the relief funds are all about. We did have a crew walking the neighborhood today, asking for a list of damaged/lost items per household.
 
So sorry about this disaster, Gene. We had problems with Isaias while we were away, but nothing like this. Subsequently, we had a whole-house generator installed. But I doubt if it would have made a difference...assuming it even stayed running...with that quantity of water falling over such a short time frame. Sending prayers to you, your family, friends and others in your town.
 
In first photo, if you look at wall, you can see how much water they already pumped out. Sort of a water line.
DB7AC21F-BF39-43D2-9850-BE052CCCC493.jpeg
 
Holy crap that is a terrible event. I'm not sure where exactly central IL is but I haven't heard anything on the news about flooding in that area. I hope the best for a decent rebound. We had flood insurance when we had a mortgage but that went away years ago when the house was paid off.

Like you I have a cinder block basement that used to take on water pretty good until we had an interior drain & sump pump installed. Dry as bone unless the power goes out. Unlike you all my media & audio video stuff is in the basement. So when I see your disaster it really hits home. Best of luck, my friend.
 
If we all lived near you Gene you know we would rally round and lend a hand.

On the other hand, you probably don't want all of us too close!! :D

Unfortunately these freak storms are becoming the norm now, we all know why that is.

We have been getting our own, terrible floods here in the UK, this summer.

I hope you can soon get back on your feet Gene and restart your lives.

At least Lamor is safe!! :QQlove
 
Oh man GOS, I feel for you. A year ago I woke up to a cold shower, went down stairs to see if the furnace needed to be restarted and found a foot of water in the basement (and it's a big basement). I immediately called the furnace people, thinking that the furnace dumped water out because on a much smaller scale it did something like that a year or so ago. Then I called the insurance folks and they sent over ServiceMaster, who came over and began a clean up. They said "it seems like it's still coming in from somewhere", but I told them I'd lived in this house for 30+ years and never had water in the basement. So they emptied it, dried it out, and left. The insurance would not cover ground water, but we were sure it was not that. They chalked it up to a leaky pipe or furnace deal.

A month later, boom, again. 6 inched of water. This time I went to Home Depot, bought 2 pumps and pumped it out myself. I also called a basement water guy. After $11,000.00, I now have a sump pump. They trenched out all around the inside foundation, put in like a drain system, and it's connected to dual sump pumps with battery back up. Apparently there was some sort of shift underground and we started taking in ground water.

Water damage really sucks. I feel bad for you as I know what you're going through. Fortunately, although our basement is big, there wasn't that much stuff down there. Maybe a few floating mice! :)
 
Horrendous, Gene. Hopefully some funds will be made available to compensate the folks in your town some of which have suffered TOTAL DEVASTATION. A few years ago we had 11 inches of rain fall and my completely finished basement flooded ..... came right up through the floor. Talk about PANIC! I did lose a very expensive Krell Mono Amp [the other survived] but luckily a friend assisted and we opened the trap in the basement and everything 'miraculously' drained out. Had the sewers backed up, I would have been inundated with raw sewerage. And likewise, NO flood insurance.
 
BTW, my local insurance guy straight up said I shouldn't bother with flood insurance - that if my house flooded it would mean the whole town flooded, and there'd be federal aid. Hoping it's the same there.
I assume that’s correct. I assume I might get something. I’ll get by either way. I truly feel bad for those in low or no income. They need the help. Since we’re a very small community (3400), I know a young man who only makes $13 per hour. He lost his apartment and all belongings. He also lost his car as it was totally covered in water.
 
I assume that’s correct. I assume I might get something. I’ll get by either way. I truly feel bad for those in low or no income. They need the help. Since we’re a very small community (3400), I know a young man who only makes $13 per hour. He lost his apartment and all belongings. He also lost his car as it was totally covered in water.
It's always the poor and the vulnerable who pay the price for mankind's actions.
I know we don't go near politics here but my heart really goes out to all those affected by these unnatural disasters.
Us humans need to realise that we are here to look after one another and our planet too.
And then we read that Sonik, Jon and Ralphy have had their own flooding, problems.
I'm sure your local community will help each other out in the short term, Gene and for those that are desperate, I hope they get all the help they need.
 
I used to be a news junkie but lately it's ultimately more depressing ... than ever. Devastation ALL OVER THE GLOBE. It seems NO country has been spared. The latest 7.2 magnitude Earthquake in Haiti with an aftershock of 5.2 and a rain drenching tropical storm approaching in a small country already on the poverty level is just the latest humanitarian crisis. And I do fear it's too late to reverse what we've been warned would happen if we didn't heed the warning signs. And this is NO time to put the headphones ON and BLOCK OUT the Science!

Ironically when COVID hit and travel came to a halt, the only significant success story was the significant carbon reduction in the atmosphere.The air was crisp and clean! And now that the 'fourth' wave [?] of Covid sparked by the Delta strain is spreading worse than the first strain, hopefully we'll learn that life will probably never revert to 'normal' in the foreseeable future. We DO live in a fragile ecosystem and it's in peril and needs to be repaired. If we could only learn that life cannot continue without sacrifice ...... Drive Less, Fly less ...... and learn to enjoy the simpler things in life. Inevitably, IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
 
Hard rain right now south of Nashville, sad to hear of the first hand flooding tales and loss of possessions for all mentioned, especially those hardest hit. We are fortunate to live on a hill with an old civil war house (doctor lived here in 1865) with no basement or crawlspace. For 30 years I was told there was a rumored root cellar; it was only located during the 2019 major remodel when all the old flooring was taken out along with 5 dumpsters of fireplace bricks. It was about 5 feet tall and maybe 8 feet square. It was dry and clean, no sign that it had filled with water. I secretly plotted to install a trap door but never did. My in-laws, who live about 150 yards down the road, have chronically had water in their basement for the past 6o years. It all depends on exactly where the house sits relative to ground water it seems. We'll get more rain off the hurricane(s) by Wednesday. Again, deepest sympathies to all enduring troubled times.
 
Hard rain right now south of Nashville, sad to hear of the first hand flooding tales and loss of possessions for all mentioned, especially those hardest hit. We are fortunate to live on a hill with an old civil war house (doctor lived here in 1865) with no basement or crawlspace. For 30 years I was told there was a rumored root cellar; it was only located during the 2019 major remodel when all the old flooring was taken out along with 5 dumpsters of fireplace bricks. It was about 5 feet tall and maybe 8 feet square. It was dry and clean, no sign that it had filled with water. I secretly plotted to install a trap door but never did. My in-laws, who live about 150 yards down the road, have chronically had water in their basement for the past 6o years. It all depends on exactly where the house sits relative to ground water it seems. We'll get more rain off the hurricane(s) by Wednesday. Again, deepest sympathies to all enduring troubled times.

Wow, 1865 Tim! I grew up in a house constructed in 1857 [described as Italianate architecture]. When my dad purchased the house in 1953 [for $23K], it was delapidated and was eventually turned into a funeral home. It had 9 marble fireplaces [for coal burning], French doors and a gorgeous wrap around solid mahogany staircase but because of its age, the bathrooms which were basically converted closets were tiny. We even had a barn in the back with partitions for horses and a genuine hay loft. And the fourth floor was a widow's peak with four windows. We were told in the hot summers, all those windows were opened and the house vented. Even had a well in the back. The third floor was the 'maids quarters' where my Grandmother and 'maiden' Aunt took up residence. And naturally, it was a GREAT venue for making my Super 8mm horror movies .....And the house was once described as "A Great Big Birthday Cake!!!!"

But the point ... we NEVER had water in the basement.....THANKFULLY. We had our 'casket showroom' down THERE!
 
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