This week's Cocktail Wednesday was superseded by a small disaster at our house. There has been a lot of rain recently, and yesterday, it rained hard for several hours. Early in the afternoon, the water began backing up into our house.
First, Scott rented a power auger to clear the drain out. Then, we called a plumber, who had an auger with a larger cutting head. We definitely cleared the line out all the way to the city main. Then, we found out that four other houses on our street are flooded. Finally, we found a sewer manhole, where we could see that the line was full to overflowing. It turns out that the main city line was blocked up, and it backed up into our basement and our neighbors' basements. At the highest point, we had about 5" of mixed storm and sewer water that had welled up into our basement. Yuck.
We spent the night at Scott's parent's house. It was a bit of an adventure for the dog, who was so unsure at first about staying there that we accidentally pulled his collar over his head as we tried to get him into the house. Then in the morning, he wanted to explore the unfenced yard, bolting around until Scott got him back on the leash.
When we got home this morning, there was about an inch of water on the floor. I went to the store on a search for rubber boots while Scott returned the auger. After the army-navy surplus, the Target, and the garden center, I found something in Scott's size at Sports Authority. I ended up with a pair of hip waders, myself. Finally, around 11:00 a.m., while we went for a walk to find out where the city was working on line, they cleared the blockage down the line and the basement drained until the water was in the low spot, sadly far from the drains.
Since then, we've been cleaning up and throwing things away. Now, it's break time. Probably time to get back to work, though.
Oh no! What a mess! You will need twice as many cocktails when that is all over.
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