Residue of the 1997 Flood

The kids and I spent most of yesterday cleaning out the basement - not regular organizational cleaning but the kind of "pick up an item, determine if it's salvagable and either toss or save it" type of cleaning. Yep, you guessed it, we had a wet basement and most of the carpet for the kids' toy room area got wet. Unfortunately we hadn't cleaned anything up before bedtime so there were papers and toys strewn about the entire carpeted area. I spent most of the afternoon hunched over the wet vac trying to suck up the water from the carpet, but by suppertime I realized I just wasn't making much progress. So after a phone call with Dave (he's in Alaska) I got out the utility knife and started cutting up the carpet and hauling it out to the garbage. (That's the first picture - the basement with 2/3 of the carpet gone and the 1911 concrete showing its age.)

Then I called Yvonne and Jim, some friends from church, and asked if they could use a dresser, nightstand, headboard and various other furniture items for the annual garage sale in a couple of weeks. Hence the second picture - some of the stuff heading to Holy Family's garage sale.

When a friend came over later I think she was surprised by the determination in which I decided to tear out the carpet and give away furniture. I was way too tired to articulate anything last night at 9:30, but here's what I came to during my sleep - it's all related to the 1997 flood. At that time we lived 1 1/2 blocks away in a wonderful house with a dry basement. When warnings of a flood came, we prepared for seepage and put everything (including two couches and the washer and dryer) up on 2x4's and moved things up off the ground. I distinctly remember taking my rollerblades off the floor of the closet and putting them up on the top shelf so they'd be safe (yeah right). In the meantime Dave and Dad spent their time building a ring dike around the house. Suddenly the Red River of the North crested eight feet above predictions, the basement completely filled with water, I hauled my 7 1/2 month pregnant self off to Mom and Dad's, and Dave stayed south of town so he could keep working.

Once the waters receded Dave had the job of pumping water out and hauling out every single thing from the basement and placing it on the berm for pick up at a much later date. Out went the couches, the coffee table, the fridge, the air conditioners, the washer and dryer, boxes and boxes of my second grade teaching supplies, and all our Christmas decorations. Then the basement was sanitized, we moved back in a month after the flood, electricity was then restored, I defended my dissertation and became Doctor, Sophie was born, the berm pile was hauled away, new grass was planted where all our belongings had sat, the Salvation Army finally stopped making meal deliveries in our neighborhood, and exactly five months after the flood we got heat back on for the first time. So, I guess you can blame the Flood of 97 for my distaste of wet basements and my willingness to get rid of belongings we no longer necessarily need or use. At least this time they don't need to go to a landfill - they'll help support our church, its mission and people in need.