Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Great Flood

Today hurricane Hanna dumped an enormous amount of rain on us, it cascaded down the wooded slope behind us and found its way thru dozens of cracks and crannies of our rubble stone cellar. By mid morning we had three sump pumps going and 10 inches of water over the floor. I looked down the steps half an hour later and the water was threatening the top part of the pumps where the electical parts are, and the bottom of the furnace was under. I put in a frantic call to Johnny Mo, our backhoe guy, this was way beyond managing with the pumps. No one was home so I watched the furnace motor drown as the water rose at an alarming speed. Nothing to be done there, I set about building dams to divert the torrent that was eroding a grand canyon down the driveway. Good ol John soon rumbled up with the backhoe and began digging up the very inadequate drain from the house. (carefully saving my hostas in the process) Some well meaning diy'er had used perforated pipe that had clogged over the years with tree roots seeking water.
Now we wait for things to dry up some, before the restoration project takes shape.


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