When the Power Commission turned off the power without warning, our sub pump stopped pumping and our basement flooded badly for over a week. Since the water came through seepage and not through the windows I was covered through my insurance for my ceramic business. Lucky for me that the water stopped rising within one inch from the bottom of the window.
View of part of the backyard from the the roof top looking toward my little shed
Looking from the lower roof, unto the deck. A pot of something cooking on the camp stove
To give you an idea of the depth of the water, this fan is a tall floor model.
Prior to the flood which we thought wouldn't be any worst that what we were used to, we put up stuff on higher ground so everything is not where it belongs. The water came higher and higher.
This was an old sink in my ceramic shop and you can see that the water had gone up almost to the switch.
When the water receeded my heavy wet molds were too heavy and the shelvs colapsed under the weight. All the molds that were submerged were a total lost and damaged beyond repair as the plaster got all pitted and the details were desolved by the flood. I had about 3500 molds in the basement and the rest were ok in the garage. I had some stored in a building at the farm too that were a total lost.
Two electronic kilns, a total lost.
This is only 2010 so that was only two years ago, I bet looking at those pictures makes you feel sick. It makes me feel sick. I didn't know you did ceramics. You lost all of those molds and did it destroy your kilns too?
ReplyDeleteIt isn't raining like that today is it?
I didn't know you were so close to a river. Does it flood often?
Oh Julia, those photos are heart breaking. So much destruction and damage. Let's pray that never happens to you again. Luckily we are on the high side of town.
ReplyDeleteWe are very close to the river. This was our second big flood that we had to move the cattle but the Power Commission never cut out the power without warning ahead of time. All the low line area of the city and beyond were cut off from electricity for over a week. Before electricity was restored to the homes they were inspected for structural damage. The home that received structural damage were condemned.
ReplyDeleteWe've had many floods before but we always managed to keep the water at bay with the sump pump and always put things up out of harms way until this time, we were prepared for the worst but no one could imagine that it would be this devastating.
Every spring we watch the river rise and hold our breath, but we had record snow falls and warm rainy weather in 2008.
I taught hobby ceramics for 10 years and then bought a large ceramic business and stopped teaching and manufactured ceramic greenware to sell wholesale to studios for another 10 years and stopped for health reason. I really loved working at home in my ceramic studio and meeting people.
To answer your question Farm Girl, my two kilns were written off. We were thankful that no one got hurt and no animals were lost. JB