Storms in Atlanta
Well, we sure got a great storm, and they say it’s not over yet. Schools were closed in Atlanta yesterday and today. There has been a fair bit of flooding, trees down, wires on the road, and so on. My friend Tina got her car smashed by a tree. At home with Ben yesterday, I was looking nervously at the huge oak trees that surround our house, especially the two at the back of the property that are quite clearly already dead. The insurance company won’t take them out until they fall - I can only hope they don’t take out the house or anyone in it.
The trees were whipping in the wind, and hard rain created rivers all around the house. We are halfway up a ridge, and it felt as though the water might just pick up the house and wash it down to the street. The driveway and the street below had been transformed into fast-moving muddy rivers. The storm drains had overflowed.
And this was the moment that I finally thought of the basement apartment. With John on the way home from University - the school didn’t close, but he tells me that he had to wade through foot-deep water to get to the car, and the trip home was quite an adventure in itself - I took a peek in the basement. Man, the water was just pouring in under the door. As you can see, the side door is below ground level.
In front of the door there is a drain that carries water into the street, but the wood planks are actually just a hair or two above the door entrance, so if there is a problem, sometimes a little water comes in under the door. Well, the drain had gotten clogged. I had to rip up the planks and the grating, clear the drain, then bail out as much of the two feet of water as I could. Then I entered the basement from the inside of the house.
By now I’m completely soaked, and covered in dirty water and red Georgia clay and leaf bits. I stripped off most of my sodden clothing, grabbed an old mop, and got to work. It was mostly just a matter of pushing water out the door once the enclosure was draining properly. It was still pouring rain as I pushed gallons of water out the door. Thank goodness the house next door is being sold and no-one could see this pitiful scene.
Thankfully, our son Ben was asleep, exhausted from playing during his long school-free day. The floor in front of the door is made of italian tile so it wasn’t too hard to get most of the water out. What possessed the previous owners to put white carpeting in a basement apartment I will never know, but the rug didn’t fare too well. About half of the basement got water, not too deep, but it’s all under the rug. Well, I did what I could do, and if I hadn’t thought of it, it would be a lot worse now. I’ve got the dehumidifier going non-stop and that’s really all I can do.
The photos of flooded Atlanta are pretty bad, but not as bad as the photos from Alabama and worse, from the islands. It was inevitable that they would call Hurricane Ivan "the Terrible" - but in this case it really is. We lost electricity for a while, but it did come back on after a few hours. Today, you can see exactly the tracks of the water - I think I’ll have to dig some trenches! - and we did lose one small tree. Overall, though, we got through it all right. Everyone is safe and the basement will dry out sometime (grin).
