Review - The Flood pt. 3: The Day is Done

The truck did not want to start again in the morning, and it took a lot of work to get it going long enough to get back across the street. In the daylight, the damage done was more clearly visible. Here's some shots of what was:

Just a shot to show you what washed into the apartment.

What was left of the lake in the backyard.

The carpet was like walking around on a soaking muddy sponge.

Our blankets and pillows washed down into the mess.

No power, so the kitchen was only illuminated by my camera light. This was lovely sliding around in the dark. The kitchen garbage actually ended up in the bathroom.

Mud settled on everything. CD player completely mud and water choked.

At this point all I could do was try to take it in. The sheer volume of trash that was once our possessions was incredible. I had no idea I had so much stuff, until it was spread around everywhere. I settled into sorting. I don't have any idea how many bags of garbage were accumulated over the next few days, but the place was full of them by the time we were done. The guy who came out and measured the flood line said it was at like two feet inside, which doesn't really make sense to me since it clearly soaked things that were up higher. But who knows, maybe it was sloshing around. Irrelevant really. It still managed to destroy just about everything.

In another apartment it actually moved the fridge from the kitchen, out through the passageway and into the living room. Water is not something to mess with. 

There was no disposing of the garbage for a couple days as the dumpster had been tipped over. And since the owner of the place was trying to kick everyone out in the first day, there was limited time to get things done. I hate doing it, but I had to leave the room full of trash. Don't feel too bad for the owner though. I've always considered him to be a bad person, but events like these tend to bring out either the best or worst in people.

The motel my brother worked at, used to be the kind of place where drug deals went down, and hookers stayed every night. My brother (and I when I worked there) worked hard to reform the place. It had since become a place, in the last few years, for those who had nowhere else to go. It was the cheapest rate in the area, and most of the people there were barely making it by. Families that had little to nothing, found refuge in the walls of those buildings. These people lost what little they had.

The owner very begrudgingly gave refunds. He did his best not to. He tried kicking people out before he legally could. When people were run off, several witnesses saw him going around, pocketing what others were forced to leave behind. As far as replacing the items, he didn't even have flood insurance. Yup.

At the end of the first day, we went over to a friend's house, where I prepared the world's best teriyaki turkey burgers. They seriously are the best too, everyone who's had them knows of the magic. Took me years to perfect. I won't publish the recipe online, but anyone who would like it... you know where my address is.

There's one more post with how things look now, but as far as it goes, the next couple days from there were spent trying to get the truck working and salvaging what little we could.

As I was leaving the first day though I snapped this shot really quickly. I needed to have something not depressing on my camera.

I think the one cloud looks like a free falling monk.

My brother woke me up the first morning after the flood and said, "I can see clearly now... the rain is gone."

He thinks he's funny. I had that dang song stuck in my head the rest of the day.

Tomorrow the conclusion, with Part 4.