Floods

This is the first picture I have of our floods... this is where it crested and started to go down again.

This is the water pouring in and the main reason why we flooded! All the water was getting trapped in the garage footings and the only place for it to go was down into the basement! These two pictures were taken AFTER it stopped raining!! There was just SO MUCH water it just kept coming! We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we heard it stop raining since we were so close to flooding over into our 'real' basement but the water kept coming and our real basement did flood.


These two pictures are of the inside of the garage footings, the rain had stopped and it was sprinkling just a little still. This is where all the water was getting trapped and going down into the basement! I took these pictures after things slowed down a little bit so this isn't even as bad as it was!


Here we go again! We actually flooded 2 times in one night! It was about 9:30 and Deric went downstairs and checked the basements and everything looked good, he told me he was getting in the shower and to keep my ears open to hear the sump pump, and we hear it kick on. He grabbed his clothes and headed to the bathroom and we heard it kick on again. I wouldn't have thought too much about it kicking on again, I would have just guessed that it was running a lot to keep up with the water... (running=good, not running=bad) So we went down there and it was starting to flood, Arugghhh!! Brody was still awake so I was trying to keep him ok upstairs and be helpful downstairs, after working for a bit Kylie woke up scared from the storms so she played with Brody while I worked in the basement. We called Deric's parents and they came out and stopped at the store and brought us ANOTHER sump pump (that would be our 4th pump downstairs!) They showed up and Papaw helped with the flood and Mamaw helped with the kids. Poor Brody didn't get to bed till 11! We finally had the basement dried out and we thanked them and sent them home... I snuggled down with Kylie (it is now 1am!) and she fell asleep after talking to me for a few minutes. I heard Deric get out of the shower and then I saw the lights turn on in the addition (I figured he was just checking on things), but they didn't turn off so after a few minutes I went downstairs to see what was keeping him. It was the water again, the sump pumps (all 4) we just barely keeping up and it was getting close to going under again!! How distressing! We stood there watching the water start to come up and flood the basement again! There was nothing we could do about it we were sunk! Then the water started to get close to hitting the landing and getting into the old basement so I went in there and started to move things around again... by the time I got to the end of the basement the water was already coming in! We busted our butts and moved a lot of the stuff out, it was easier this time because I had condensed from last time and all the important stuff was in groups of boxes. The stupid boxes flipped again, but I was able to keep most of them from getting wet. We called Deric's dad back to help out again but by the time he got here we had given up and started to call emergency plumbers to come and pump us out. The new basement ended up getting to about waist deep and the old basement got to above the knee. We never did get anyone to pump us out, but the water did start to slow down and we sat around waiting for something to happen. Deric fell asleep on and off on the couch, I climbed into bed and told them to wake me up if the needed help again and I was OUT!! (It is 3am at this time!) The next thing I knew it was almost 7 and it was quiet... I came out and there was no one around, Deric had gone to work and his dad had gone home. I went to the basement and while I slept and Deric power napped his dad cleaned out the basement when the water went down. (he squeegied the water towards the holes, picked up the stuff floating in the water, drained out the stuff that was floating... ect) It was so wonderful that he did that for us! Everything was very muddy inside and I spent last weekend power washing the basement trying to get more of the mud out. It looks great down there now and I have put most of the stuff that was down there in the barn (I'll take my chances with bugs and mice (if we have them, we haven't see any evidence of them yet) I don't want to have to do this again!!) I want to power wash the new basement now too... there is a thick film of dirt on everything, even the kids swings are coated! Arugghhh!

This is the exact moment the pumps went under and the water started to win (again)

This is the second flood... the water just stopped keeping up and started to flood... again!

Oh yeah, Kylie just reminded me we found a toad in the basement floating in the water (her favorite part!) and then during the second flood I actually saw a frog swim by!! Oh my!