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Sunday, March 9th, 2008
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2:27p - When it rains, it floods
Way back during my one year in the Boy Scouts, I learned an important phrase that has had a life-long impact on the way I do things: "Prior planning prevents poor performance."
The people who build our townhouse complex were obviously not Boy Scouts.
We live on a pretty steep incline, and every time it rains, the water turns into a half-dozen little rivers running straight down the hill. Back when this was undeveloped land, that water could travel, unimpeded, until it splashed into the ocean. Now, there are these big square buildings in the way, but the water sill wants to go where it always went before. And so, it tends to go right through us.
Which led to my lovely discovery last night at 9pm that our downstairs had an inch of water on the floor, with more pouring in every second.
I ran outside, turned the corner into our back yard, and found a nice-sized lake waiting for me. So, shovel in hand, and with more rain falling and soaking me to the bone, I proceeded to dig a new trench around the building so the water had someplace else to go. And boy, did it flow. It would have made excellent white-water rafting for a crew of intrepid mice or squirrels, but they were smart, and stayed hidden in their nice, dry dens.
With the mini-lake draining, then began the long process of cleaning out the inside of the house and the garage.
Now, there are supposed to be several drainage devices around the building to prevent floods like this, but from what I've been told, they have never worked properly. Considering that this is our third major flood in less than a year and a half, so I can't say I'm surprised by this bit of history.
Luckily, not too much was lost. We'll have to throw out a cheap rug we had in the foyer, and spend some time going through boxes in the garage to see if anything needs to be saved or disposed of, but all the same, this was most definitely not my idea of a fun Saturday night.
Sigh...
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