Large Scale Central

Flooded (Lot's o pics)

General Discussion
#1

This past Wednesday evening we received over 6" of rain in about 3 hours. I live no where near a creek or any waterway. My entire house was surrounded by water. I was up cutting trim board for my laundry room remodel when the flash flood hit. I was in the breezeway and saw it come under the door. I had enough time to get my antique hope chest and treadmill out of the room. In 30 seconds the water was over ankle deep. It fill the crawl space under the house too, collapsing some of my duct work.

The railroad took a hit too. It was completely under water. The ballast all stayed put, but the mulch didn’t stand a chance to the rushing water. My wife lost some extremely valuable Alice in wonderland yard decorations too.

Standing next to my wifes new car and daughters car just outside the breezeway.

Inside the breezway. Water has started to go down. It’s about ankle deep in there now. The water is still almost over the casters on the computer chair.

Wife’s flip flop floating around.

Shop vac’n water. Ended up getting about 20 gallons of water out.

Air movers running.

#2

Wow! That sucks Matt. Hope for sunny days.

#3

oh-oh!

hope, you got no permanent damage.

#4

Thanks guys. I guess it was lucky I was still up. I was finishing up some trim work around a built in I made in the laundry room. I had the trim board in my hand and went to the breezway to cut it with the mitre. If I hadn’t been up then I would have lost some valuable items.

My train shelving was screwed to the wall for support. So, I had to remove all the trains. They are now all over the dining room. lol.

#5

That’s really too bad, Matt. I sure hope everything thoroughly dries out over the next few days. You’d hate to see mold building up behind the paneling or in the carpet pad or anything like that. We had some basement flooding here a while back and it is really a pain. Turns your whole life upside down for a while. Good luck.

#6

Matt, sorry to hear about the damage… Fortunately, we were spared from that much rain… It went north, and south…

#7

Thanks John. I’m lucky it’s still paneling in there and not sheetrock. So, we’ll see how dry it gets by sunday. Odd’s are I’m pulling the paneling off to let it air out better. No carpet pad, it’s a concrete floor in the breezeway. So, I’d laid new indoor/outdoor carpet a couple years ago. It should be fine. It dried out really fast. The framing and insulation in the walls is what concerns me.

Thanks Andy. I was wondering how you were. I know you have shown me that field behind you can make a pretty good river.

#8

Wow, Matt… That ain’t purdy at all… So sorry to hear of and see the damage…

My daughter lives in Mascoutah just west of Andy and she go nailed as well… I guess it rained there off and on for almost 24 hours… I checked radar and the cells went from red to purple in big hurry…

#9

Thanks Stan. It’s sure a mess. Oh well, it could have been worse.

Yep, I know where Mascoutah is. :smiley: I’m about an hour and a half east of Andy. It rained off and on for several days here, prior to wednesday nights 6+ inch downpour. Everything was fine until then. Most of the area around here flooded. A couple of the highways were under for a while too.

#10

That really sucks. At a minimum, the insulation will have to be replaced. Probably not worth making a claim, even if you have flood insurance. If it was me, I’d pull the paneling off the wall and let the studs dry out. Mold is bad juju. Much more expensive to abate then paneling is to replace. If you are careful, you might be able to reuse the paneling.

#11

Jeez that’s just uncool. Is this a typical thing for you area. I don’t think I have ever seen that much rain. Can’t even imagine

#12

Yes it does Steve. lol. When I get home later tonight that’s what I plan on doing. I’d bet money I’ll have to replace the insulation. If the paneling breaks no big deal. I was, eventually, going to hang drywall out here anyway. I called my State Farm agent just to ask if I had flood insurance. He said State Farm doesn’t offer it. Hmmmm…well crap. You’re right though. Probably not worth the claim anyway. I have some duct left over from when we remodeled the bathroom. I think I have enough to reach from the main trunk to the bathroom register. If not, at least that stuff is cheap.

Devon, it’s not uncommon for it to rain off and on every day here this time of year. We get really strong storms all the time. I live in what’s called Tornado Alley. BUT, it’s very uncommon for it to dump more than 6 inches of rain in that short amount of time. It was wild to see the flash flood with my own two eyes. Crazy stuff.

#13

I feel for ya, Matt having been through Irene and Sandy.

I will second all the remarks about taking care of mold. It can hide where you can’t see it.

#14

We still talk about Ivan here. I live on a hillside, so I never expected to have water gushing in my back door. Neither did my dog, because she was standing in 2 inches of water, with that deer in headlights look on her face.

#15

Wow that sucks Matt , sorry to see that happen to you . Hope you get it back to normal soon.

#16

Wow, Matt. I hope everything gets back to normal soon. 6" of rain is a lot of water especially when the ground is already saturated.

#17

Matt down here in Brisbane we can understand your predicament from the floods we had in 2011

At least no one was hurt there and the other items can be replaced.

Hope all is back to normal for you soon

#18

Thanks guys. I think everything is going to be o.k.

I opened up the walls in the breezway and to my surprise it wasn’t wet. I’m not sure how, but I’m not going to question it. Those air movers might have dried them out after all.

I shoved a coupe air movers under the house yesterday and let them run all day. I was going to let them run today too, but it’s supposed to rain here in a bit. None of the floor joits got wet and only one duct work is bad. It’s the easiest one to get to also. Again, I’m not sure how none of the wood got wet.

I got all the walls back together last night, trim up, furniture back out, and the trains back on the shelves. I got done about 12:30 last night. Whew.

Supposed to get my truck back from the shop this tuesday, so I’ll head to lowes to get some duct work later in the week. Next, my daughters car heads to the shop. This has been an expensive week. lol.

#19

That sucks and no one needs that kind of crap… Hope it get repaired soon and no more of that stuff going on. Trains can be replace but the home is very hard to replace damage person stuff. We really feel for ya and hope all goes well with your family. That would be hard to handle here.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)

#20

Sorry to hear Cousin Matt…fans ,air and lots of air hopefully brings it all back to the norm like it was cuz!