Oh Irene

As many of you already know, our house did not do so well through the storm.  I am just thankful that we are all healthy and unharmed, dogs and fish included.  We are very thankful for our family and friends who have been so kind and generous.  We are very lucky.

We are currently staying at my in-laws' house until further notice.  Basically, our basement flooded.  The water was up to the ceiling.  The water came in through the floor, windows, and walls.  Thankfully, it was an unfinished basement.  However, our washer and dryer, water heater, main electric panel, water pump, water tank, and all of the house's plumbing is in the basement.  We had to call the electric company and have them turn the power off.

Amazingly, the water receded very quickly.  It was completely gone by Monday evening.  After reading the local newspaper, we discovered that our town was hit extremely hard by the flooding.

Our insurance guy already came out to start the claims process.  He took lots of pictures of the outside of the house (the basement was still filled with water), collected some paperwork, and told us what will happen next.  Our first chore is to empty the water out of the basement (duh).  That has proven to be a huge task, but we are finally almost there.  As we speak, Joe's grandfather's generator is powering our plumber's pump, and we hope to have the water gone by tomorrow. 

Then, an engineer has to come and assess the structural damage to the house, since the water was literally coming in through the walls (see picture below).  Everything after that depends on what the engineer finds.  Our insurance guy was very realistic with us: he told us not to hurry because it will probably be a little while before an engineer can come out (they're in high demand right now), but our name is on the list.  I will keep you posted...

 The water coming in through the wall of the basement

 View of our house from the road

 Front our our house.  We are not sure how high the water actually went, but it appears as though it didn't actually come into the house.  It missed by inches.

 Watch that first step into the garage!

Looking at the entrance to the basement.  The top step stayed dry, but the second step was completely covered with water.  Once again, we don't know how high the water actually went, so we are unsure if the ceiling rafters/floor joists got wet.