As I sit here at my mother-in-law's sun drenched kitchen table this morning eating some breakfast, drinking coffee, and reading devotions with my kids, I am surprisingly feeling level non-dramatic emotions today. I'm thankful for my loving hard-working husband, my beautiful kids, dear family and YES, even our wonderful leaky house.
For those of you who don't know, we had a major thunderstorm last Friday night around 9pm. Lightning was shooting across the sky for nearly minutes straight at a time. Hail the size of large marbles were falling like missiles in the darkness and the rain-THAT drenching torrential rain, came down for at least 15 minutes straight. I believe we got 1 inch of rain in that 15 minute time period and for a dry desert town that only gets 11 inches a year at the most, that was some heavy duty rain people.
The kids and I sat praying and trusting in His plan as the rain and hail beat seemingly ruthlessly upon our house, knowing what would probably be coming. Within 5 minutes of the rain subsiding , our fears were confirmed as water started shooting from the street drain right into our front lawn. We started seeing it flow into our basement from a couple of vulnerable spots down there minutes later. It's hard when you see something bad happening but there is nothing you can physically do to stop it. You can only try to keep it bay, but with this small catastrophe, it really was futile to use towels. My kids, bless there little hearts, got every towel in the house soaked trying to be of help, before my husband and I decided it would be best for me to get them out of there and over to my parents to settle in to dry beds for the night. Since then, we have moved to my husband's parent's home for a few days and then will settle into my grandparents basement for the remainder of our basement's restoration.
That fateful Friday night, many friends and family came over as soon as we called and started vacuuming, pumping, and moving. We are so grateful to them. We would be cleaning up a larger mess today if it wasn't for them sacrificing their time and night of sleep, for us.
If you remember THIS post, you'll know we have been working on getting up the gumption and a worthy plan for correcting the ruthless storm drain's nasty effects on our basement. Well, we hadn't quite gotten to remedying that situation yet, and Friday night, well, let's just way it has shown us just how bad it can really get! This was by far the worst rain storm we've ever seen here personally. And I have heard many a neighbor, friend and family member reiterate that!
We we're surrounded by water. You couldn't see the grass on three sides of our house as there was at least a foot of water sitting on top of it. At one point, you couldn't even see where the curb of our yard met the road. It was just ALL under water.
A few of our basement windows had water up to the sills. At one point my husband and a friend over helping dug a patch of grass and put it in front of the window to keep the water from dripping through. Better a dirty window than water in the basement I suppose.
It was a mess.
It still is a mess.
Just a cleaned up mess.
We ended up vacuuming, tearing carpet out and bringing furniture up just about all night until the water subsided early Saturday morning. There was still an inch or so of water on the floor of our entire basement needing to be shopvacced up but we look at the situation now as overall fortunate! The water never got deeper than the depth of our carpet and pad. It made minuscule damage to sheet rock and furniture. We store most of our keepsakes, papers and possessions up in our dry attic, so besides a couple of books that had been left on the floor, there weren't a whole lot of things ruined. We will only need to replace the flooring, baseboards and do a little repair by the window where the water was worst.
Fans have been drying the place out for 2 days now, we had a disaster clean-up guy (not sure if there is a technical name?) come over and use his moisture meter to see if water had seeped into any of the walls or insulation. And.... nothing! Only one little spot under a window was there a little moisture. I'm no expert or anything on how basements flood, but that must mean that the water stayed very close to the cement wall behind the interior wall, OR it came in at floor level, therefore minimizing contact with our interior walls.
We can see where the point of penetration was, and from there it just seeped into every room down there, soaking and traumatizing as it went.
We do not have flood insurance because technically we aren't in a flood plain. But when they design the city drains to handle 1 inch of water an hour at most, our yard, being the lowest on our block becomes a flood plain when we get 1 inch in 15 minutes. I believe we will be getting flood insurance today, and keep it until we can get that outside barrier built and make sure it can withstand a similar storm and keep our basement dry!
Sometimes life has setbacks. I would call this one. Do you remember THIS post? Some days I feel as though our house is a holey bucket, filled with water and as we are fixing the holes, new ones are being made, almost faster than we can fill the old ones.
I have been discouraged over the past 2 days, I won't lie. I've cried tears. It's been hard to smile. I've started to place blame and point fingers... but then I was reminded to take a step back and take in that broader perspective. As I look at our situation, like God does, and weigh it next to the world's reality, I realize that we aren't the most unfortunate people ever. I can easily compare our situation with that of the Pakistani people and come away shaking my head in complete disgust at my own doubts and fears, my anxieties and worries, knowing our basement is nothing, nothing compared to the tragedy that recently hit many families there.
We are going to recover from this. There is good that will come from this. There already is!! Like any sudden disastrous situation, it can bring my husband and I closer, or it can drive a wedge in between us. We've chosen to cling, whether in good or bad, so it is going to bring us closer together and give us new appreciation for the good times that life affords.
I'm so thankful for a loving church family, an embracing immediate family and our friends who so willingly lent their time and abilities. We love you!! Although, we would never wish this on you, we are just waiting for the time when we can help in return.
I know that many others have been hit with major flooding issues, or ruined crops as well, and know we are praying for you all, empathizing with you and are here to help in any way we can.
Our neighbor who gets flooded as well, when our street drain overflows, was hit with close to 2 feet of water in his basement. My husband was trying to help him as well as work on keeping water out of our own basement last Friday night. What a fiasco!
Yes, God could have stopped the rain. But then we would have missed out on ALL of the blessing and comradeship, love and growth, the provisions from the Lord, that has and will continue to come to light through this small hiccup of a hardship. Plus, my husband, kids and I will actually have MORE time to spend together during this time, as we won't be at home, surrounded by the many daily "things" to do.
So with my new broader heavenly perspective, as I take my eyes off of picking out and dwelling on strictly the negatives, and instead seeing how ALL things work together to create a beautiful life experience, I can say with all honesty and a full to overflowing thankful heart- thank you, Lord!
All the time, God is good!
P.S. I will post pictures of our basement periodically during this transformation over the next few weeks. Looking on the bright side, I'm actually excited to pick out new flooring, baseboards and closet doors! And some of the things that just never got "finished" downstairs will finally get done! Yippee!
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