I’ve seen flooding on TV and pitied the poor people who had to clean up after it, but I’ve never personally had to clean up after a flood.
That changed July 5 when 6 inches of rain falling in less than an hour washed the gravel, garbage and grime off Cedar Street into the basement window of a small apartment building that my husband, Jim, and I own.
We were made aware of the situation when one of our Spanish-speaking tenants called, desperately repeating the word “window.” We thought perhaps a storm-tossed tree branch had broken a window? The video he sent explained his concern.
The basement window had been broken by the flood waters raging down Cedar Street. It looked like Niagara Falls pouring into the basement.
The flood filled the basement with two feet of slimy, grimy water.
Fortunately for us, our son Joe is an experienced disaster cleanup specialist. He and Jim quickly made the calls, gathered the supplies – sump pump, trash pump, commercial sized-fans and dehumidifiers, squeegee, gloves, pressure sprayer and disinfectant – and got busy.
By midnight one of the basement’s two levels was cleaned and being dehumidified.
I showed up on Day 2.
The water had been pumped back out of the window, but the street sludge remained. The task was daunting and disgusting, but we made the best of a slimy situation.
Joe carefully rescued four frogs, even rinsing them off with clean water. Our day was made more fun as the frogs escaped and had to be recaptured, causing us to build increasingly sturdier frog-containment structures.
Joe has always been funny and kind, and it warmed my mom heart to spend the day with him.
Jim and I had recently had a conversation about being more intentional about spending time together. The irony was not lost on us as we rode “like love birds” to the transfer station with load after load of soggy, slimy basement debris.
By the end of the day, the entire basement was cleaner than it’s ever been. The sludge was gone. The dehumidifiers were set on “full blast.” Four small frogs were starting a new life in Joe’s backyard, and I went to bed exhausted thinking, “My first-ever flood cleanup turned out to be a really fun day.”
But I think once is enough.