My house is flooded!

[nickelsfamily]

Went out to run errands this morning and pick DS up from school. Came home and the nursery, my room, bathroom and closet are all flooded!! We live in West Palm Beach, we had 6 inches of rain. But, I guess the sewer got backed up and didn't allow the water to drain down by the road. It flooded one other house on the block as well. So needless to say we have a waterline in our house of 5 1/2 inches of water....

The thing that sucks is we aren't in a flood zone so we didn't get flood insurance! First thing tomorrow we will be adding that!

Thanks for the vent....

 

[mickeyboat]

Oh my, I am so sorry about that? Is it town sewer? Maybe the town would take some responsibility for the damage since the sewers were not cleared out properly. The water main broke in front of our house about 8 years ago, and the town fixed our driveway and garden - our hmeowners insurance covered the rest. Just a thought.

Hope you get things cleaned up quickly and that you haven't lost too much.

Denae

 

[anewvance]

We're in West Palm Beach too and I can't believe this weather, it's been non stop all day long. They are saying about 8 inches have fallen so far. It was nearly impossible for me to get out of my neighborhood because of the standing water.

I'm sorry to hear about your house, that is lousy. Hope you can get it cleaned up without to much trouble.

 

[Poohbear123]

Welcome To Florida!

 

[SplshMtn99]

It may not be Flood insurance that you need. Flood by (insurance) definition is the overflow of a pond or lake or river......

According to your post, the sewer backed up from too much rain - drain couldn't keep up. Your homeowners policy may or may not include coverage for "Backup of sewer and/or sump pump failure".

Take out your policy & declarations page OR call your agent. A standard homeowners policy excludes that coverage. However, HOPEFULLY, your agent suggested you buy fairly common endorsements or "bells & whistles" packages or maybe you're a preferred homeowners policy; & it had been added back on. If you don't already have the coverage, it can be added on by endorsement. (but of course, this incident isn't covered) It is not a seperate policy.

Good luck.

Here's some reading for you. http://www.insurance4usa.com/waterbackup.cfm

 

[JR6ooo4]

Sorry to hear,
you also have to make sure it is just rainwater. If you have a combined storm and sanitary sewer system in your neighborhood and the sewer backed up from the drain and into your home it can be dangerously septic. Carpets need to be cleaned thorougly etc...
As a kid I remember mom washing the whole laundry room floor with clorox to kill the bacteria. Check with the village.
If the water came in over a doorsill, that is hard to stop. But if it backed up from the drain then you can add a pipe to the drain to raise the rim. But you have to be expecting the flood or leave the pipe in all the time.

Mikeeee

 

[nickelsfamily]

Thanks for the replies! We took out the carpet in the nursery and closet. We will just put something else down. My room is all tile so that just had to be dried up. We think that we were able to get things cleaned up quick enough that we shouldn't have a problem. We have floor fans in the rooms and will rent a dehumidifier this morning.
The water came in through the nursery door at the front of the house. The rest of our house is higher off the ground, so we didn't have a problem there.
DH is going tho call the city again today, and if anything have them come out and check the drains and make sure that they are cleared. We have so much trash in our yard its gross, maybe we can get some help with that too.
I know that it could be worse, I just wish this didn't happen this close to Christmas...
Well, off to clean! Spring cleaning in December!!

 

[icebrat001]

I'm sorry.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I'm in FL also. We did buy flood insurance after a street drain clogged up and nearly flooded our house a couple of years ago. It wasn't expensive...it's like $315 or so for the max. 250K in coverage if you're in a "preferred" zone. We're right near the beach and we're still considered preferred, so you might be pleasantly surprised like we were.

IMHO everyone in FL NEEDS flood coverage, because of the risk that homeowners' insurance will try to say that any possible future hurricane damage was caused by "flood"

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

DH is going tho call the city again today, and if anything have them come out and check the drains and make sure that they are cleared. We have so much trash in our yard its gross, maybe we can get some help with that too.

Good luck with that. I've been communicating with the county engineer for TWO YEARS. The drain that flooded has been "next on the list" for those 2 years Think that they're trying to blow me off??? In any bad rain, my neighbors are always stuck out there with their rakes, keeping debris off the drain

 

[JR6ooo4]

IN the town I work, the village redesigned the streets adn curbs. The next summer we got very big rain and the water backed up in the street. So much that it breeched the sidewalk and began spiling down a driveway into a basement garage. (No longer allowed by code) When it was all over the homeowner described the level of water as "halfway up the steering wheel of his lexus"! He did not ask the village to pay, rather he just paid his $1000 deductable. The worse part, he applied for a permit to close up the garage with a concrete wall, fill the driveway, repave it at ground level and just park in the driveway. They refused and forced him to build a garage! Which to match the house cost about $15K or more!!!!!

But in the engineers defense, if a community is participating in the national flood relief program they are only allowed to let a certain amount of water into the "shared" storm sewers per hour. So the easiest (and least costly to the public) method is to put restrictors in the catch basins and pool the water in the street wherever possible.

Mikeeee

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

It may not be Flood insurance that you need. Flood by (insurance) definition is the overflow of a pond or lake or river......

According to your post, the sewer backed up from too much rain - drain couldn't keep up. Your homeowners policy may or may not include coverage for "Backup of sewer and/or sump pump failure".

Take out your policy & declarations page OR call your agent. A standard homeowners policy excludes that coverage. However, HOPEFULLY, your agent suggested you buy fairly common endorsements or "bells & whistles" packages or maybe you're a preferred homeowners policy; & it had been added back on. If you don't already have the coverage, it can be added on by endorsement. (but of course, this incident isn't covered) It is not a seperate policy.

Good luck.

Here's some reading for you. http://www.insurance4usa.com/waterbackup.cfm

No, it would definitely be flood insurance that would cover this one. You are confusing the actual sewer pipe with the sewer that the OP is describing. What happened in this case is that the sewer drain (gutter) in the street got clogged up with debris, and this caused standing water to pool. The standing water came into the house somehow (under a doorway I think she said??). That is different from a sewer pipe backing up. The standing water entering the house is considered flood damage. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in my area when we have heavy rain.

 

[nickelsfamily]

No, it would definitely be flood insurance that would cover this one. You are confusing the actual sewer pipe with the sewer that the OP is describing. What happened in this case is that the sewer drain (gutter) in the street got clogged up with debris, and this caused standing water to pool. The standing water came into the house somehow (under a doorway I think she said??). That is different from a sewer pipe backing up. The standing water entering the house is considered flood damage. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in my area when we have heavy rain.

Yes, that is right. Yesterday right after it happened, DH called our ins. company to just see if we could get help with anything. We were told that it would be covered by homeowners if the flood waters came through the windows!?!?!

 

[doxdogy]

We are not in a flood area so we do not have flood insurance. I was told that if water entered into the home through the windows or if the roof was blown off during a storm, it would be covered by homeowners insurance.

Yes, that is right. Yesterday right after it happened, DH called our ins. company to just see if we could get help with anything. We were told that it would be covered by homeowners if the flood waters came through the windows!?!?!

 

[craps7or11]

Sorry this happened to you. Hope you get it cleaned up easily.

 

[TnTsParty]

Sorry this happened to you and so close to Christmas. I live in Delray Beach so we got alot of the rain you got yesterday but luckly the area by my house is on higher ground. There were areas that I drove through that weren't flooded when I went to the store and when I drove back through less than 1/2 hour later were flooded. I know that certian areas of West Palm are like that - heard about it on the news. I heard there was at least 9 inches in West Palm that fell yesterday - hopefully it didn't get any worse. Hopefully we will have drier weather for you so it can dry out.