On Wednesday September 11, the weather report called for cooler temperatures and rain. I don't know if we were downplaying the rain but... We got rain. I was driving home from Children's in it. There were some large puddles on the highway but manageable. Joel picked up Gavin and I got Trevor. We ate dinner and prepared to watch the basement window well for flooding. I took the boys up for a bath and about five minutes into it, Joel came up and said I needed to get downstairs ASAP. I pulled the kids out, got them dressed and sat them in front of the tv. A real treat for them.
The rain had come. FAST. The problem window well was 1/3 FULL. Oh boy. How did it get that high that fast? It was starting to come in. The sump pump we had in the window well couldn't keep up and the unfinished basement floor was getting wet. It is a bit of a blur but we quickly moved everything to the other side of the basement. Joel had me call around to the neighbors. I left a few messages. Soon Ken knocked at the door then Mike with industrial sized squeegee and mop. Joel went out w a bucket and hand bailed.ile, Ken and I used the shop vacs and cleaned up water on the floor. It wasn't slowing down so Joel said call for help. I did a quick search on my phone and found servpro. We always see commercials for them and they are very visible in the area, kept hanging up on me. So I kept calling back thinking I had a bad connection. No. Turns out, the after hours person kept hanging up on me. She called back and yelled at Joel saying it was dinner time and she was a single mom trying to feed her kids. I hope after three nights of rain that she realizes this isn't the right job for her.
After calling three other companies I finally got thru to someone. He said he'd be out in an hour. The four of us could deal in the meantime. The water only slightly got lower by the time the guy arrived w his pump. He lowered it down and we finally am started making progress. Mike and Ken both went home and the guy helped us clean the water out of the 1/3 of the basement that was wet. I got the kids to bed at some point during this, the guy, who was great, left and Joel and I began our new ritual. Pump duty.
I started. Joel went up to get some rest. Or not. Just as he got into bed, sometime after midnight the rain came fast and I called him back down. We were able to keep up w things this time but he didn't get to bed til about 2:30. I used the pump every three to five minutes until I turned into a zombie around five and traded w Joel. Gavin came in at his normal 6:55 time and the day had begun. I got up w jim and checked Facebook to see how friends had fared and noticed Emily said how crazy it was that school was closed in Boulder County due to rain and flooding conditions. How crazy I thought. Gavin's preschool followed the school district schedule/snow day policy so he was off. Lucky for us, Maria was able to take Gavin in addition to trevor. I dropped them off and went back home to continue our new ritual.
The day was a bit calmer and we were watching weather reports every few minutes. The floor began to dry. Joel ran out to get a second pump so we'd be ready. he got the last one on the shelf!
The city of Boulder got hit with huge amounts if water flooding the many small streams turning them into rivers. Bike underpasses were now part of the raging rivers. We got hit hard but they got it 10x worse. And the rain kept coming.
I remember during our extensive home search 4 plus years ago that se listings said something about the hundred year flood zone. What was that? I was now finding this out. An epic rain that rarely happened but could affect homes along small creeks. Yep. That is what we ate experiencing. Lucky for us, we didn't purchase one of those places!
Day turned to night again and we thought we had everything under control. I made an early dinner. Prepared the kids for another non-routine bedtime ritual and the rain started up in force again. We were fine until the power went out. Yeah, insult to injury. I gave the kids both their flashlights and put them in the living room w their toys. Joel and I ran out w our buckets and started bailing. We couldn't keep up. I called the neighbors in a panic and in a few minutes, mom and her three kids came over to help. Morgan watched the kids. Riley was in the basement helping lower and fill the buckets and mom and Josh helped bail. It was only after Josh's three friends stopped by did we start to make a dent. The water level finally fell and the basement was still dry. They saved us!!! Their dad came home from work and found us a generator. The power came back on about an hour after it went out. Morgan and I got the kids to bed and everyone went home. Joel continued the evening watch and let me get some sleep. I took over around 5. Things had again slowed down.
In the meantime, it was now Friday September 13. We saw blue skies for a bit! Joel's 40th birthday! Joel's parents and I were planning to surprise him with a visit. They had arrived on Wednesday morning and were staying in castle rock w Miriam's cousin, Roni. They arrive around 11:30 w a knock on the door. I convinced him to go up and answer it. He was shocked! Success! We ate lunch. Gave Joel a well deserved nap And went on our way since the weather seemed pleasant.
