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Hurricane Irene

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Hidey Ho from Maryland. Got nailed saturday night about 9pm. I lost power an hour later. I'm fairly certain that the sub-terrain drainage in my court provides drainage from everyone's property into mine so, even on a nice day, my sump pit has about 14" of water in it. Anyhow, when I lost power, the sump pump was clearing the pit about every 30 seconds. I know, I know.

Anyway, the billion year old lady we bought the house from had a water-powered backup sump pump installed. weird little device, It uses the municipal water supply to create a vacuum which sucks water out of the pit, up 7 feet and out to the drain. I had always wondered if it really worked. I had tested it and it "came on" but never seemed like it pumped any water. It sure as hell used water but I could never confirm that it would suffice in the event of a power outage. So, I got no sleep saturday night because I lay in bed, listening to the rain and wind pound my windows, tree branches breaking and falling about and the distant sound of fire engines. When I wasn't wondering if/when a tree will come down on my house, I was pondering what my newly renovated basement(which I did myself over the last 6 months and worked very hard) looked like. I didn't want to go down and look because I figured if it WAS flooding, what the hell was I going to do? bail it out with a turkey baster for the foreseeable future until power returned? Imagine that for a second. So, I just laid in bed waiting for a cat to come up with wet paws as a receipt from having made a litter box run(which is in the basement).

The storm blew over and the sun came out. As I came downstairs, I could hear the sound of water running in the pipes, you know, like when you have the hose running outside. I knew the backup pump was running. Walked down to the basement to find it dry! The sump pit water was about 2 inches below the top of the pit. That bad boy was running all night and continues to run now. So, I've got a dry basement at the cost of who knows how many thousands of gallons of my water have been/continue to be pumped out into the street. My house is the only one in the court that has water coming out of it. the neighbors on either side of me had flooded basements so I do feel fortunate. It just sucks coming home and 3 blocks down, you can see water going into the storm drain, almost like when there is a water main break, except it's just my house pumping out my sump pit and, draining my wallet along with it. It's literally FLUSHING MY MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN! So, the backup sump pump has been dubbed "the little pump that could".

 

Oh, and my power is still out. fridge/freezer was a total loss. They say the power might not be on until friday night, joy. Meanwhile, my daughter has yet to start school. Monday was supposed to be her first day back but it's been closed. Shame too, it's a brand new school, they just finished it. She's not bothered by it though, it's like extra summer. Children are so resilient.

 

Anyhow, that's my saga. Anyone else get nailed? MC, you couldn't have possibly been missed by Irene.

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MD, for the most part you're OK, and that matters most. Irene, which originally had my house in the center of the Cone of Destruction, veered east and spared all of us here in FL. We got nothin'. . .but no complaints here. I had the experience of Wilma five years back, and that was enough for me. I remember sitting in my house during the height of the storm and wondering if the roof was coming off. It was scary fun. Followed by six days with no electric, no phone service, no internet, etc. Makes me wonder how the Amish do it??

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