Flood 2008 - Clean Up

Do you like gross smells, getting dirty and wet? This job is for YOU!!! My sister and I spent Thursday at my grandmother's/mom's house today to try to get the 'wet' stuff out. Words can not describe the total devastation and destruction. We worked from 7 am - 6 30 pm and only got the first floor "almost" completed. That's just removing "stuff" and we haven't even started with the plaster that needs to come off.

This little guy pretty much sums it up for everyone, your tired, dirty, smelly and there doesn't seem to be an end to the cleaning.

I don't know who he belonged to, but he seemed so sad sitting on top of this dumpster.

Dawn and I tore into the main floor which took in 3.5' of flood water according to the building inspector team. They leave you a nice little tag that's different colors based on the safety level of the house. Their house was "yellow" which means you can start taking things out and cleaning, but it needs to be inspected before anyone can live in it.

Looking at this picture you would really have any idea of the mess inside. The addition was just put on last Fall. It may have been the only thing that saved the house as the foundation underneath provided support for the rest of the basement. If you're foundation is collapsed then your house is condemned. There are times you wonder if that might not be a better option. There is just so much work ahead and it's going to cost so much money to get it done.

We hauled countless numbers of load of furniture out to the curb. My grandma had a lot of antiques that were veneer. If you just touched it the piece would crumble. This piece had some of her china in it. We took all the glassware off the top part (Thank goodness for the ladies outside that washed and packed it away for us! What a job and they were AWESOME!) Anyway, we removed the top and it's screwed in at the back. As we started to move it forward to remove those screws one of the legs started to give. Thus I got to hold up the buffet while Dawn took it off as fast as possible. We saved the top at least, and sometimes that's how you had to look at things. Then we had to remove the china and table cloths from the back as you couldn't get the drawers open. You peeled layers to get to the items inside. It was very sad to see all those conformation candles, beautiful table clothes and napkins go into the dumpster.

We got all the furniture out, I telling you, total loss. We couldn't save anything cloth or wood. My mom said it was like someone had died, it was total destruction. At about 3 pm my uncle and 2nd cousin come over to help us remove carpet and the beautiful oak flooring underneath. Honestly, I would NOT have covered that floor, it was gorgeous! It's now ruined however, warped and full of sewer water! EEWWW!!! The carpet at the left is really very light in color, but very heavy and wet with sewage. NASTY!! You couldn't carry it out without getting it on you! Dawn and I had wet pants, wet arms, wet inside our rubber gloves, I can't even describe how gross we felt.

The pick up crews were awesome and I can not even imagine how they are going to get all that stuff picked up. Well, I can, but it's going to take a LONG time. They picked up our stack at mid-day and we had it full again before we left. I don't even know how many of these cleaning crews they had, but the machinery looked brand spanking new! Sure be PURDY - as we say back on the farm.


We found some interesting things and I must say we did have a few laughs. I found grandma's favorite ring by accident!! 10 points for me!! Dawn found a partial...we're not sure who's it was, but it was pretty funny. We wrote on our face masks for fun. We learned that we LOVE the red cross as they are very friendly, however, DON'T EAT THE FOOD!! I'll update more on that later.

Below - Tammy and Dawn.......



We off to work again!!! Who knows what today will bring.