October 2002
October 7 - The Great Flood of Aught-Two
I hadn't had enough fun this month, apparently. So this morning at 4:00 a.m. the fun began in earnest. The upstairs neighbor's hot water heater ruptured. I'm pretty sure he wasn't home; I didn't have time to go looking, but I didn't hear footsteps at any point.
The sound of the water dripping from my hallway ceiling got me out of bed. I quickly started putting down towels and buckets, and started mopping up what I could. Anything that was in the dirty laundry became a towel...that's a sheet in the foreground. A t-shirt got pressed into service, too.
Water was also coming down into the living room, where the piano was in harm's way. Mercifully, I could move that rather quickly. I grabbed the next available container, a mixing bowl, and informed it it was now a drip pail.
As soon as it was possible to take a break from the flood control measures, I stopped to call the emergency maintenance people. And had a lovely chat with their voice mail. That was shortly after 5:00 a.m.
Another hour of mopping and sopping and emptying buckets passed before I called again. I wasn't as calm this time---in fact, I pointed out that I was not a happy person. But still no one checked the voice mail for another hour. During that time, I downloaded these pictures. Here's a view of the hallway from the kitchen.
This is the hallway ceiling. Notice the hole, and the lovely mold. No, I don't mean moulding; I'm talking spores here. They're dead ones, but are still there from earlier in the year when the air conditioner upstairs developed a drip in its drainage hose. Maintenance had already planned to do some ceiling repair, after cooling season ended. The hole got started from the tiny holes where the smoke detector had been installed. It grew!
This time, the utility closet didn't get much water. The bathroom got some, but that floor is moppable and nothing was in there to get ruined.
Before I needed to leave for work, maintenance came again, to vacuum up the water in the hallway carpet. They promise to be back to fix the ceiling. I'm going to make sure they wait till the dripping has stopped. I'm also planning to have quite a bit to say about the notion of emergency maintenance and voice mail and no one checking it in a timely manner.
I did go to work, but after she heard the saga of the flood, Wendy offered me the afternoon off, to sleep or clean, as needed. I took her up on it. I slept, and cleaned, and told the saga to a couple of friends. Now, I'm hoping for a quiet night.
After all, there's only so much fun a girl can handle in one day.
Text and images © copyright 2000-2002 Becky