Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Hurrican Ike's effect on my neck of the woods

Copied from an email I sent to my friend on Monday, 9/15. Sorry for being so lazy but at least I'm admitting it, right?

Well my area got some of the rain from Ike yesterday. We had a ton of rain in a short amount of time. Winds were up to probably 45MPH. But the rain wasn't huge stinging drops, it was more like misty rain if you know what I mean. We lost our power around 7:30 a.m. and it came back on around 9 a.m. Something that never occurred to us while our power was out was our sump pump. After the power came back on, I went downstairs to my basement to start a load of laundry and saw streams of water in my laundry room floor. Then I flipped on the light in the main part of the basement where there is indoor/outdoor carpeting and all of Dean's fishing equipment, a couch, TV, couple of chairs, and the furball, and I all of a sudden noticed the carpet was squishing. All the water that the sump pump would normal keep out of our basement, seeped up through the floor! The sump pump has been working over time since then and we've been vacuuming up the squishy water out of the
carpeting, and running fans to dry things out. Dean moved our DE-humidifier out of the furnace room and put it in the carpeted area. We also had a tiny leak in Gabby's room right where the sewer trap comes out on the roof and water came out of the ceiling fan. I think it was blowing rain so hard that water came through the vent on the side of the house and it blew down through the fan. The fan was completely dry and the ceiling too. Only evidence was a wet bed spread. So, even though what happened to us is NOTHING compared to the Texans, it hasn't been fun to deal with.

So yeah, that's what happened to us. Three days later and even with running the humidifier and fans, my basement is starting smell. Dean thinks it's the smell of rabbit pee but my nose knows the difference between rabbit pee and wet basement. Ugh!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you DE-hhumidifier......otherwise you are just putting more moisture into the air. ugh. Sounds like a mess. I grew up in a house that had a leaky finished basement and we used to suck up H20 all the time. It sucked!!

I hope it dries up soon for you!!!

sltbee69 said...

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, we are using a DE-humidifier.

krissy said...

Oh boy. I know the pain. We have flooded 4X's now. It sucks.

I'm so glad that you are not getting anything worse though. I know people who were beat up by Ike.

Yes. The dehumidifier is a very crucial process. Especially for mold. And trust me...mold sucks.

Me said...

We had rain and wind here too, but no flooding.

Sorry you have a wet basement now. Hope it dries up soon for you!

Beth said...

We had something similar happen at our house as well. Luckily, we caught in time to keep it from getting too bad.

Guinea Pig said...

I highly recommend when you get it fairly dried out taking some solumel in a carpet shampooer. It will kill the smell and the stuff that is growing down there. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. Solumel is expensive but a little goes a long way and nothing is better for that mildew.

I hope it cleans up!

My earthy momma odyssey said...

Oh jeez, I am glad you are ok. Love you!

My earthy momma odyssey said...

BTW- I FOUND YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!