Not the They Might Be Giants Flood, but our apartment filled with water flood.
We went out for dinner tonight. After eating, we contemplated a second beer but decided to go home instead. Good thing we did! When we got to our floor of our building, there was all this water in the hallway. We stood there, dumbfounded, until the elevator doors closed. When we got our wits back, we entered the hallway to find that a utility closet next to our unit was spewing water into the hallway. Our neighbors next door were running around trying to figure out what to do. Our unit was rapidly flooding.
For some reason, no one could get in touch with anyone who had a key to the utility room responsible for the deluge, so the neighbors called the fire department. In the meantime, we started sweeping water into the stairwell. The firemen came pretty quickly, broke into the utility room, and shut off the water. Then they busted out these huge squeegees and quickly pushed most of the remaining water into the stairs. We took care of the rest of it with mops. At the peak, I think we had about 4 in of water in our apartment.
Fortunately, the bedroom stayed completely dry and it doesn't look like there's any real damage to our furniture. The wood floors are totally fucked, but that will be the unit owner's responsibility. We had a large rug that is totally soaked, but it's currently on the very windy balcony so it might dry out fine. The only real thing of value of ours that might be damaged is EGM's aging laptop, but our renter's insurance should cover that and it was on it's way out anyway. There are a few other odds and ends that will might try to get replaced via the insurance, but nothing too huge. Several of our neighbors weren't home tonight, and I don't envy the mess their going to find when they come home to standing water.
I'm just so grateful that it wasn't something that we caused. I remember ScienceMama's awful experience after her laundry exploded; I think we'll be able to avoid that drama, at least.
8 comments:
ugh, that is nasty! Any idea what caused it??
Good luck with the insurance claims. Hope at least EGM can buy a fancy new laptop :)
Good thing you decided to go home, and also good thing that you are not like us and leave everything on the floor! :)
Oh, I am so glad that the damage isn't too bad!! What a mess.
Thank goodness that there no major damage. Fingers crossed for the rug.
Thanks, all. It turns out that a broken pipe caused the flood.
A restoration crew was brought in just a few hours after the event, and they promptly ripped out the carpeting in the hallway, inspected all the units, and ripped out the baseboards and then put holes in the drywall to help it dry faster without molding. We currently have all our furniture up on foam blocks in the center of the room with about 12 industrial strength fans and a huge dehumidifier running. I'll try to post pictures.
Also, I want to make clear that I wasn't suggesting that ScienceMama's flood was "her fault" like she did something bad, but that it was her responsibility insurance-wise.
Oh man. It's amazing how quickly a flood happens. Glad to read you didn't lose too much stuff and that thedamage is being dealt with promptly. I'll keep my fingers crossed for no mildew.
Oh no! I'm glad that there's no major damage, all things considered.
Yikes! I'm glad you got off (relatively) lightly and I hope the insurance people pay you and your neighbours promptly.
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