The house is, as we expected, a complete loss. No surprises there.
My front steps are missing. Absolutely gone. We actually drove around the block looking for them, for a laugh, and there is a very real possibility that they washed into the nearby creek and are now in Canada. Not even kidding. If someone finds three grey wood steps with two silver pigs jammed in between the steps, those are my steps. You can keep them. Hands across the border.
There are pictures, and someday the Biker will email them to me and I'll get them up. For now I'll give a brief description of what we found, starting outside.
-Two steel dumpsters! Big welded steel dumpsters! in our front yard. One had smashed into our garage door, and the other was stopped by my valiant 'Improved Josephs Coat' rose out front from colliding into our front room.
-We have other peoples belongings all over our yard - fence posts, a razor scooter, a girls bicycle helmet, a big Halloween pumpkin in the buddleia, a Betty Boop 'Welcome!' mat in the front yard, and oh so very much more.
-Our entire barbecue deck floated away and is now in the back northeast corner of my back garden piled high against the fence, with all our lawn chairs, random garbage cans and so very, very much more.
-Our back deck broke away from the house and is covered in a giant tangle of flotsam and jetsam, railroad ties and mystery belongings, including a Buzz Lightyear coloring book.
-The bottom of the garage door blew out. The high water mark was three feet. Nothing important inside was damaged, thankfully.
-Both sheds also flooded at the three foot mark, and my lawnmowers are deceased.
-My car was lifted and set at a 45 degree angle to the driveway against the retaining wall, and was filled with water up to the drivers wheel. Borked.
-Our truck is salvageable, although waterlogged and in need of a complete oil purge and some jiggering around to break the waterlock. This suits me just fine. I like my truck. I did not like my sedan. And our SUV is running strong.
-The inside of the house got two feet of water. All the bottom drawers of everything, including the refrigerator are full of water and every drawer made of wood is swollen shut. The furniture is borked - we may be able to salvage the solid wood pieces, though.
-We lost nothing whatsoever of any real or sentimental value!!!!! It's all safely in storage now!!!
-Some stuff had floated around in the house. Not a lot of things, just enough to it kind of amusing.
-All the food will have to be thrown away, of course.
-And finally, weirdly...MY GARDEN IS ALL THERE AND HAPPY AS A CLAM. Even though there are places where the wicked current had laid things out, everything is alive, still rooted, kinda dirty. Even have a couple of roses in bloom, and all the calendula is going nuts too. I couldn't believe it! All that fresh, nasty, reeking silt is probably acting like plant crack, is what I think.
The people where the Biker works put together a work party and tomorrow we set out to get the place scraped out and the junk hauled away. Lots of trucks, lots of volunteers. One has a container we can store our salvagables in until we find a place to rent! With any luck, the next week will see the place squared away enough to be boarded up.
Amazing things that happened:
Sikhs from the nearby Guru Nanak Gursikh temple, the one that I've been supporting for years with food donations, randomly laid two hot meals of curried rice and lentils on us just for...being in Sumas! They were helping our pharmacist get his store cleaned out and just had a pile of meals they were distributing to people! I will always support their temple. They walk their talk.
Our pharmacist gave us our prescriptions for free!
I was offered a job working where the Biker works! (after I described my scant qualifications, I doubt I'll get anything, but the offer was sincere.) Truthfully, his job is doing so much right now to assist us that I almost burst into tears. They might even find us a place to rent.
It looks like we'll get FEMA money!
The hero in all this is THE BIKER. Without his fast thinking and his knowledge of logistical and financial things, along with his amazing memory, his sense to drive back home when he saw shit floating around on the roads and waves in the fields, added to his mad driving skillz? Without all that my happy ass woulda woke up floating around on my memory foam mattress. He has brought us through with style and class.
Wow!!!!!! Considering how much water and current you got, I would say you made out pretty lucky. You will have a new house by time your done!!! It was even on our news here the last two nights. I may have even seen you in rubbers in your yard assessing damage for all I know. But a Betty Boop door mat?!?!? That's great!!!! I could think of worst things to find.
ReplyDeleteWe have cousins somewhere outside of Seattle, I have not heard if they were affected or not. I can't remember the name of the town they are in.
You take care puddin pie.
Heavens! Must be horrible to try and sort out, but I guess it could have been much, much worse. Jx
ReplyDeleteCould you save Betty Boob, please ?
ReplyDeleteJeez, Mrs, that's really awful. So good to hear that the community is working together to sort out the carnage the flood caused - and kudos to The Biker!
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I applaud the resilience of you, the Biker, and your community.
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ReplyDeleteMistress Maddie: The whole upper West Coast got hit, from Oregon north, so your guess is as good as mine. I hope they're OK - flooding isn't the only result of this storm; there's also been terrible mudslides and all kinds of kerfuffle, trees falling, power outages, you name it. As for a new house? Nope. Never again. NEVER AGAIN. Our house is a total loss as it stands (for as long as it stands, which may not be long since the foundation is in pieces and sinking on the north side) and we're just over the whole home ownership thing. We're going to move into a rental on high ground, naturally, close to where the Biker works, and leave the maintenance to someone else. And good fucking riddance, too.
ReplyDeleteJon: It actually reads worse than it actually is, now that I go back over it. We had a small house and our four lots were very small, so the cleanup of the drift isn't going to amount to much more than a truckload or two, and the city has four huge debris collection sites nearby, so that's good! And we don't really have a lot of stuff, and certainly nothing that is irreplaceable or expensive. We'll probably salvage all our decorative stuff, soft goods and solid wood furniture. Freezer, refrigerator and washer/dryer are dead, living room set is dead, beds are borked, but no big deal. It was all paid for. When we move into an apartment it won't matter anyway. We'll just get a couple of chairs and a couch, a couple of beds and that'll be it!
ReplyDelete63Mago: Betty BOOP will be left for the scavengers. It sure in the hell didn't belong to us! I think you must have gotten her confused with Betty Page, hon. XOO
ReplyDeleteI'm not senile, yet, m'dear.
ReplyDeleteEchoing the Mistress, your resilience is admirable.
Ms Scarlet: I guess it's kind of awful. It's certainly gross. It just happens out here, though, and it was just our turn. It came as a shock to the whole community, though, since the influx of water from the breached levees was so unprecedented, but once they got their shit together they got it together FAST. I'll be sad to leave that place - but not THAT sad!
ReplyDeleteThe Mistress: And I accept your applause and kudos and stuff! On behalf of Sumas, the Biker and myself, and all the little people that made it all possible!
ReplyDelete63Mago: Well of course you're not, but you'd be amazed at how many people I've run into who've said 'Betty Boob' and thought it was the characters actual name (she's a big part of car/biker culture) and how many people conflate Miss Boop with Miss Page. Could I miss a chance to tease you? No. No, I could not. XX
ReplyDeleteI've always been frustrated that it often takes a disaster to bring people together to do right by their communities. When shit is normal everyone just goes about their business trying to get from one day to the next. I'm constantly trying to figure how we can balance it out so its not one extreme or the other. It sounds like you've got some wonderful people stepping up to help out. Don't sell yourself short in what you can offer in return. We all have things we're good at. I'm glad the Biker turned around and came back home too!
ReplyDeleteThey found the body of Jose Garcia yesterday, the missing Everson man who tried to drive through a flooded road. I feel terrible for what he and his family had/have to go through.
I hope you find a nice place with a fabulous landlord! I've had some really great landlords in the past. I could often get deductions on rent because I like fixing and cleaning things. Knowing their investment was in good hands and not having to make special trips for minor repairs or cleaning always seemed worth its weight in gold. Does the Biker work in Bellingham?
AAACCHH - you look so tempting in yer wallies !
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