My house was flooded

[DISUNC]

 

[nhrenee]

Stay safe.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I'm so sorry. I remember the '93 floods well...I worked on the recovery of MANY communities for about 3 years after that!

When you can get back inside your home, PHOTOGRAPH everything before you begin to muck it out. Please remember to get your tetnus shots updated and don't eat or drink anything (or out of anything) that has been touched by flood water. Also, be sure to keep kids (and animals) out of the floodwater.

When the FEMA registration opens, be patient, but call! I hope you all had flood insurance (unfortunately, I know many do not).

I'm sending all my prayers and thoughts to you and others similarly affected. Please let us know how you are doing!

 

[4nana]

Bless your hearts, I am so very sorry . Thank God you and DS got out in time and pray your DH's ok. I can't imagine your grief and anxiousness over DH, your home, belongings and town. We keep hearing all these horrible stories of flooding, tornados, fires, and my heart goes out to those in harms way.

Our SonIL's Mom and SD's home is in Paradise, Calif, area where the fire has been raging since last night and we've had no word from her. Called the evacations stations/hospitals, etc. to no avail and are all hoping and praying she is safe and sound. The waiting to hear about family is tough.

Sending hugs and prayers for you, your family, your town. Godspeed and pls. stay safe.

 

[douglisa]

Oh boy, your post is bringing back memories. You definitely have my sympathies.

When I first made it back to my house one month after Katrina and saw what 3.5 feet of standing water for two weeks did to it, I thought no way, no way in the world could it be fixed. I just couldn't imagine ever living there again. I denied that it was even my house at first. We had to wait for the damage assessment from the city to see if it could be repaired or if it had to come down. Well the city gave us a permit to repair the house and deemed it structurally sound, but I still couldn't see it. But indeed the house did get repaired and we moved back in one year later, and it is beautiful.

I know how daunting and overwhelming it feels, but you will get through it. It won't be easy and you will have some challenges ahead, but everything will be okay. I needed to hear that everyday through the rebuilding so I wouldn't go insane. And you will probably be in shock for awhile, especially driving through town, but that will wear off too and you will begin to feel a sense of normalcy again, I promise.

Stay safe and get your DH and grandmother out of there- nasty things happen in floodwater.

A year? Where did you live? Holy smokes!
Now I am going crazy. We live so far from my folks, almost two hours.
If we stayed with his we would have to get rid of our dogs. That is not happening. The assesor really gave us the run around today. Phone tag and then nothing. He did not show. I can not get dh to leave. I am so scared it is going to come down on him. I just want out of there! In fact if I had to never go back again and just have the movers get our stuff I would be happy. I could not sleep last night and now I can not again. I keep seeing that dirty water rushing by my feet and large debris floating down the river that used to be corn fields. I feel like crying but can not cry anymore. My eyes are sore from it. It's like FEMA is ignoring the small towns. All the focus is on Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I understand that it is of GRAND scale there, but at least to hear something from our city officials.
We have been living paycheck to pay check, I had some money saved up for Disney but I used all $2,500 and part of our taxes to pay for my schooling and other bills and also to buy the mini van when my car broke for good.
We have NO money. NONE. All the mail has to come from Cedar Rapids first but the post office is under water and my husband's check did not come, and will not come for a very long time, if ever. He went today to his work to see if they could cancel the check and cut him a new one but they refused. I may be stuck here for weeks. We only have two changes of clothes and a little bit of dog food left. I am sure my family would loan us some money but that is a last resort. I heard there is emergency cash assistance available for displaced flood victims but I would not know how to go about it or if I should.
Others I am sure are much more unfortunate.At least we have my family letting us stay here, many I am sure do not have nice lodging and are sleeping on cotts tonight. Ds 7 acts as if he is on a vacation. LOL, he loves being at grandmas. Once in a while he asks about his dad and his house.
At least he does not seem tramatized or anything. I just feel so confused.
My sis said she will call me tomorrow and help me brainstorm and think of things we can do and help me write them down so I can tell Doug what he should be doing.

 

[douglisa]

our town is having the same issues .... I had to laugh though (gotta keep the sense of humor right?) but I was down pumping out water at my grandmas thinking of the post the other day about the low cost of houses here... thinking hummmm maybe I see WHY (PS I don't think the situation is funny that just hit me the other day and I thought of that post)

LOL yeah, I forgot. Truly though, cost of living is good here and I stand by what I said. But my advice to anyone considering moving anywhere;
Make certain you are up high!!!!

 

[robinb]

Oh man. {{hugs}} to you and your family. I hope that your DH comes around. He can't stay in a house with no power.

 

[douglisa]

Bless your hearts, I am so very sorry . Thank God you and DS got out in time and pray your DH's ok. I can't imagine your grief and anxiousness over DH, your home, belongings and town. We keep hearing all these horrible stories of flooding, tornados, fires, and my heart goes out to those in harms way.

Our SonIL's Mom and SD's home is in Paradise, Calif, area where the fire has been raging since last night and we've had no word from her. Called the evacations stations/hospitals, etc. to no avail and are all hoping and praying she is safe and sound. The waiting to hear about family is tough.

Sending hugs and prayers for you, your family, your town. Godspeed and pls. stay safe.

I will pray for her safety. So much sadness
Someone else asked if we have insurance, yes we do but at this point we are hoping that FEMA will buy it and demolish it. We want to start over. The house had been flooded 50 yrs ago. We had recieved mail 3 months ago saying that they were considering placing our house out of the flood zone because it had been so long. I am SO GLAD that they did not and that we renewed our insurance to include it. FEMA has bought several houses in the last few years about 3 blocks from us down hill.

 

[douglisa]

Oh man. {{hugs}} to you and your family. I hope that your DH comes around. He can't stay in a house with no power.

Thank you,they restored power today, I am more concerned about the structural damage.
He said the house shook and groaned today. The garage seperated from the house and he said it looks like the brick and mortar walls in the basement have damage. The fire and rescue pumped aprox 7 ft from the basement.
The force of the water caused the street to the left of our house to come up in the middle. A large row of concrete pushed up. When he walked across to bring me the bags it was waist deep. People were telling me that I should tell him to stop because he might get washed away. He is so stubborn it would have done no good.

 

[Ms Marigny]

A year? Where did you live? Holy smokes!
Now I am going crazy. We live so far from my folks, almost two hours.
If we stayed with his we would have to get rid of our dogs. That is not happening. The assesor really gave us the run around today. Phone tag and then nothing. He did not show. I can not get dh to leave. I am so scared it is going to come down on him. I just want out of there! In fact if I had to never go back again and just have the movers get our stuff I would be happy. I could not sleep last night and now I can not again. I keep seeing that dirty water rushing by my feet and large debris floating down the river that used to be corn fields. I feel like crying but can not cry anymore. My eyes are sore from it. It's like FEMA is ignoring the small towns. All the focus is on Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I understand that it is of GRAND scale there, but at least to hear something from our city officials.
We have been living paycheck to pay check, I had some money saved up for Disney but I used all $2,500 and part of our taxes to pay for my schooling and other bills and also to buy the mini van when my car broke for good.
We have NO money. NONE. All the mail has to come from Cedar Rapids first but the post office is under water and my husband's check did not come, and will not come for a very long time, if ever. He went today to his work to see if they could cancel the check and cut him a new one but they refused. I may be stuck here for weeks. We only have two changes of clothes and a little bit of dog food left. I am sure my family would loan us some money but that is a last resort. I heard there is emergency cash assistance available for displaced flood victims but I would not know how to go about it or if I should.
Others I am sure are much more unfortunate.At least we have my family letting us stay here, many I am sure do not have nice lodging and are sleeping on cotts tonight. Ds 7 acts as if he is on a vacation. LOL, he loves being at grandmas. Once in a while he asks about his dad and his house.
At least he does not seem tramatized or anything. I just feel so confused.
My sis said she will call me tomorrow and help me brainstorm and think of things we can do and help me write them down so I can tell Doug what he should be doing.

Oh gosh, we lived in a hotel in Houston for two weeks, then rented an apartment there in Houston and started working (may as well make some money- what else could we do?), then lived in a B&B when our jobs here called us back to work, and then rented an apartment here once we got the building permit to repair our house (five months after). We had to use our savings to keep paying the mortgage on our house as well as our new rent. We didn't have any family to live with- they all flooded too and had their own struggles to deal with.

I know the hardest part right now is the waiting game. I hope FEMA learned its lesson from Katrina and will do better with y'all, but I got zero from FEMA- nothing. I would do as much as you can right now yourself. Keep calling the city, but expect delays (everyone else is calling them too). Call your insurance adjuster- really keep on top of them. Take pictures! Lots and lots of pictures! Inside and outside, inside every room, and especially the foundation. Video is helpful too. It sounds good that you have electricity already- it means that things will move along much sooner. We didn't have electricity available for five months after, or natural gas for one year after. And your sister's idea of brainstorming and writing things down is very good. Do that and it will brings things into perspective and maybe calm you down a little.

As far as your husband's check goes- that is ridiculous! How heartless! It is so easy for them to do a stop payment and reissue the check, I can't see why they wouldn't, especially in those circumstances. Keep calling them for sure. Is it a corporation? Do they have a corporate headquarters you could call?

Like I said, it seems so daunting and overwhelming right now, but in times of crisis you just have to do what you have to do. You'd be surprised at how much inner strength you have when you are called upon to use it. Good luck to you.

 

[Poohgirl]

Wow, so awful. I don't know what to say. Im so sorry this is happening to you. Stay safe, I will send a prayer for you all.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I'm so sorry to hear you're getting the flood waters in your house. Stay safe.

 

[douglisa]

Oh gosh, we lived in a hotel in Houston for two weeks, then rented an apartment there in Houston and started working (may as well make some money- what else could we do?), then lived in a B&B when our jobs here called us back to work, and then rented an apartment here once we got the building permit to repair our house (five months after). We had to use our savings to keep paying the mortgage on our house as well as our new rent. We didn't have any family to live with- they all flooded too and had their own struggles to deal with.

I know the hardest part right now is the waiting game. I hope FEMA learned its lesson from Katrina and will do better with y'all, but I got zero from FEMA- nothing. I would do as much as you can right now yourself. Keep calling the city, but expect delays (everyone else is calling them too). Call your insurance adjuster- really keep on top of them. Take pictures! Lots and lots of pictures! Inside and outside, inside every room, and especially the foundation. Video is helpful too. It sounds good that you have electricity already- it means that things will move along much sooner. We didn't have electricity available for five months after, or natural gas for one year after. And your sister's idea of brainstorming and writing things down is very good. Do that and it will brings things into perspective and maybe calm you down a little.

As far as your husband's check goes- that is ridiculous! How heartless! It is so easy for them to do a stop payment and reissue the check, I can't see why they wouldn't, especially in those circumstances. Keep calling them for sure. Is it a corporation? Do they have a corporate headquarters you could call?

Like I said, it seems so daunting and overwhelming right now, but in times of crisis you just have to do what you have to do. You'd be surprised at how much inner strength you have when you are called upon to use it. Good luck to you.

It really angered me how the gov seemed to not handle things well w/ you guys. No, he works in road construction/excavating. No corporate we could go to. I want to thank you all for your well wishes. Also thank you for giving me a place to talk about this. I can not talk to my folks because they are in their late 70's and I don't want to worry them or make them feel bad.
My sis that is going to help me w/ figuring out what to do lives in Cedar Rapids and we are divided by the water and long distance. I do not want to raise my moms bill.
Ms Marigny you are an inspiration and what you are saying has helped calm me a bit. What we are going through is in no way the same as what you did but it is nice that you are lending your hard won wisdom about natural disaster. Thank you all so much for listening.

 

[Wankerville]

Flood victim here. I'm in Maryland, and we had Isabelle 4 years ago. The bridge was washed out, we could only get to our home by boat, so it obviously took a while for the FEMA people and insurance people to get to us.

We had no mail for months on end. We were without electricity for a long while. The electric company said they didn't even realize the electric was out down here. The school buses wouldn't run down here, so that was another thing.

We lived in a FEMA trailer in the backyard for a good long while -- a year or so. I was pregnant, and had to bring my new bundle of joy home to the FEMA trailer.

We had flood insurance, and got a tiny bit of help from FEMA, but it takes a while to get everything sorted out.

I understand your stress about the money situation. So many things of ours were ruined, hotels cost money, food costs money, we need clothes and underwear and gas in the car, cleaning supplies, etc. So within a couple of weeks of no working and spending tons of money, we were negative 7 cents in our bank account.

I learned that if you called people you owe money to (like that new van you've got) and explain what's going on, a lot of times, they'll let you have an extention, so you can go a month or two without having to make a payment, so that should help you.

Just remember that anything the water touches is quite possibly ruined. We had a foot of water in our house, and I remember during the clean up process, I dragged my couch outside and started scrubbing it with soapy, bleachy water, and the preacher stopped by. He said to me, "Please stop cleaning that. That mud water is going to be inside that couch no matter how hard or how long you scrub. It will have mold and mildew inside, and it will make you sick. Lets take it to the trashpile."

The same thing with the walls. If the water touches the walls, the insulation will get wet, and the water will soak upwards, meaning you have to tear out all the walls and kill the mold, replace the insulation, and replace the walls.

It's a long hard process, but you will get through it, just like many others of us have.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Please contact the American Red Cross and/or The Salvation Army. Both have disaster programs (though they are likely focusing on larger towns now). Both provide immediate help with things like clothing, food, essential medications and can, in certain circumstances, provide cash assistance (limited). They also have specially trained grief counselors (or pastoral care in the case of The Salvation Army) that can help you sort through your emotions so you can make good decisions for your family.

Also, contact your insurance agent. Many flood insurance and homeowners policies have "displacement" causes where they will pay for temporary housing while you are underwater and after while your home in uninhabitable. It is not an "automatic" thing with your insurance, you generally have to opt (and pay extra for) that type of coverage.

I used to do work with FEMA back when they were the good guys (not during Katrina where the leadership was filled with bumbling idiots). FEMA does take time and I'm sorry for that. However, that is why they (and others) stress that you must have an emergency plan and be prepared for a disaster. Unfortunately, the calvary does not arrive immediately! Bear in mind that the first responder is always local...and when they are overwhelmed, the state...and when they are overwhelmed, the Feds. Immediate assistance always goes to protect life first, then property second.

Unfortunately, floods are slow disasters (unlike a earthquake). Damages cannot be assessed until the floodwaters have receded. FEMA has to wait for the State to ask for assistance and, even then, immediate assistance is always provided by non-profits like Red Cross and Salvation Army. You are right that little towns are overlooked when bigger towns are affected...and for that I am truly sorry. It's not that people in a larger town suffer more...it's just that they already have access to more resources that smaller towns do (and have the infrastructure to support it) so they get more quicker.

My heart is with you. Please let us know how you are doing. Keep a journal (both for your emotions and your expenses). Please know that there are many caring and compassionate disaster workers out there (I used to be one, before kids) and they will do what they can to help.

 

[RUDisney]

I have been wondering what is going on with my cousins in Iowa. I won't be able to find out until my Mom gets back from her camping outing this weekend. She's got all the numbers to get in touch with them.

Prayers for you and yours for a quick ending to these problems that literally washed up to your doorstep.

It makes me wonder if your DH's employer is having hard financial times that it won't reissue your DH's check... needing to use the payroll for its own needs right now. That's awful, but can be correct.

When all is said and done, make sure you get on direct deposit with your bank instead of getting a check, if you can, so you can avoid this in the future. That can be one of your lessons learned the hard way.

 

[lowie]

OP, i'm so sorry this is happening to you. but from your posts i honestly think you need to take a deep breath and relax a bit. you are very lucky that you have sufficient insurance and that your family is safe. take anything that is offered to you, meaning any emergency cash or food vouchers from FEMA etc., that may be all you ever see from them.

after Wilma hit, those of us who had insurance got screwed by FEMA so they could help only those who were not repsonsible enough to have insurance.

this is a great reminder to all of us that every family should have a disaster plan. there is nothing as important as the life of your family and there is nothing in your home that is worth risking human life. kids need their parents way more then they need that house.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Prayers for you and your family. I remember my sister going through at least two floods and how that was. I'm so sorry.

 

[wdwgirl03]

I am really sorry that your house is flooded. We had a little bit of water in our basement last weekend after all of the rain we got(I don't even know how much, but it was gone the next day) and my parents were freaking out. I kept thinking how it could be so much worse and seeing what's happened in other parts of WI...we were really lucky.

I'll be keeping you in my thoughts!

 

[alldiz]

Kerri