In Thanksgiving's Wake - Part 1

It has been one of the longest few weeks I can remember since Thanksgiving. For those of you who do not know, the Tuesday morning after turkey day we had nearly 5" of rain and as usual a flood.

It was 2:30ish in the morning and I was experiencing a little insomnia due to cold medication. The weather channel was reporting that we might get up to an inch of rain, but it seemed to me that it was raining harder than that. Around 3:00AM, I was going to bed since the weather guy was still not indicating flooding and decided to look out the window. To my horror, I saw the water already up to the center of the car tires in the carport. I ran and woke up Cathy, put some jeans on and headed out to try and avert the flood.

I grabbed a rake and started clearing the drains but it was already too late. The water was not moving into the drains and the rain was not slowing down. While I was keeping the debris away from the drains so they wouldn't clog when they started to run, Cathy was moving stuff inside away from the doors and off the floor.

It was pure helplessness. I watched the water rise and hoped for the rain to stop and minimize the damage. The water peaked nearly 2" above the bottom of the doors, but due to Cathy's efforts, the flow into the house was not as bad as it could have been.

From 3:00AM to 6:00AM, I watched water rise and then fall while outside in 40 degree rainy weather. I was cold and Cathy and I were tired. She got the kids ready for school in the sloshy house and I started bailing water with the wet vac. Cathy got the carpet guys on the job and I called in sick to work.

By noon we were checked into the hotel and moving furniture for carpet removal. The hotel stay lasted nearly ten days, and except for some minor water damage and frayed nerves, we have gotten back to normal. But this was definitely the last straw, even for our landlord. He has decided to sell the house and is letting us out of our lease. So after the holidays we will begin the new house hunt.