The flood Moved In and I Moved Out

My Monday night was a little more exciting then I had ever planed for.   I live in a cute little basement apartment in the very rainy Oregon.  Last night, my apartment flooded.  And I'm not talken about just a little water, it was enough to keep a whole possy of people busy all night long. 

It started when I went to flush the toilet and nothing went down around 8:30pm.  I plunged and flushed again and the water rose, and I turned off the water to the toilet and plunged and nothing was happening.  I decided it might just need some cool off time, so I'd come back in a little bit and give it another go.  Of course, when you have a clogged toilet everyone then needs to go to the bathroom.  So the company I had over used my upstairs neighbor's toilet and when they flushed there were these huge Glup-Slurp-Gurggle-Snort sounds that came from the toilet, sink and tub.  I called my wonderful landlord then to tell him that we had pluming issues and he had someone set up to come first thing in the morning.  That is when I noticed the water all over the floor, near the toilet.  

I could not figure out where it was all coming from.  It was clear and just seemed to be seeping in through the walls.  I called my dad thinking he might be able to give some helpful advise and we decided I should go buy a mop to soak it all up.  I opened the door to head outside and was greeted by a puddle forming under my washer and dryer.  The water went from my bathroom, through the adjacent wall to my bedroom and through that wall into my laundry room/ storage area.  

My friends started pulling things out of the ankle deep water in my bedroom and moving things to higher ground while I called my landlord in a panic to let him this this was far worse then a clogged toilet.  

I tried to turn off the main water to the house, but was not nearly strong enough to make it budge.  I ran around to all the neighbors looking for someone with a crescent wrench to turn the water off, thinking that would stop the flow of water pouring in.  I soon had my house filled with friends, family and church members moving all my stuff up and out of the basement.  When the plumber came he had to worm his way through a sea of people to get to the problem.  

When everything that was in danger was moved, we started bailing out the water that had been steadily building up in my house.  We had people with buckets, vacuums and suction hoses trying to get as much of the water out as possible.

The water was coming up from the city sewer lines and because my basement was at such a low point, the water wanted to keep coming in.  The people from the city that were on call for sewer lines had come out and snaked every man hole and line they could find in our area from about 2:00am till 10:00am.  After they had done all they could, they left us to figure out what was wrong.  There was nonstop bailing of water from around 9:00pm that night till about 12 hours later when the clog was finally found and fixed.  12 hours of bailing water!  I'm so glad I decided not to go to the gym yesterday!  

Now I have clothes that have been soaked in sewer water, many offers to sleep on people couches, no idea where my pants are, and a great appreciation for all my friends, family and members of my faith that stayed up late or got up early to help me.  I could not have been able to get through this without their help!  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful support system!

And I think Nathan will agree that my week was far worse then anything they are throwing at him in boot camp.  


Next on the list of things to do is clean everything (while writing a paper that is due Friday).