What a Mess!

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated or visited a lot lately. Dad had the flu over the weekend, and Mom was busy taking care of him, and then on Monday, Dad was still sickie, and it was raining, and Abby and I (but mostly Abby) were bouncing off the walls (and off Dad, but again, that was mostly Abby), so Mom decided to take us to daycare. That way, we could go crazy with a bunch of other doggies indoors (because it was raining hard all day) and Dad could get his much-needed rest. It was a great plan for all parties involved.

So, Mom dropped us off at daycare, picked some medicines for Dad and came home. She wrote, puttered around the house, and generally did stuff related to trying to get Dad comfortable. At 4pm, Mom got ready to leave the house to pick us up.

And stepped off the stairs into a pool of water.

Yeah, um, that is pretty much never good. Thinking it was a broken pipe in the garage like we had a few months ago, Mom checked the garage. Some water on the floor, but nothing pouring out of the ceiling. She grabbed our little shop vac and yelled for Dad (who still had the sickies) and started vacuuming water. Dad called Uncle Larry, and they discovered that pretty much the entire downstairs was flooded.

Oops. Mom called the Disaster Recovery people, who informed her that it would be at least 4 hours because of the widespread flooding in northern Utah. Bummer. So Mom came and picked us up while Dad and Uncle Larry began cleaning up the water, everyone still unclear as to where it was coming from.

We got home, and Mom did her best to keep us out of the way while Dad and Uncle Larry worked away. Finally, at about 8pm, the Disaster Recovery people showed up, and began sucking up water (it was still coming in the house from under the toilet and shower in the downstairs bathroom). After much discussion, it was concluded that the flood was a result of a very heavy snowpack this winter combined with warm weather in the past week, coupled with the very heavy rain on Monday. In short, the ground got saturated, and the rain on Monday not only fell, but melted a lot of snow, making for a HUGE amount of runoff. Since our ground was already saturated, it started coming in the house!

On Sunday, before the big rains, our backyard was already saturated; we had a small mudslide in our backyard.

I know it doesn't look like much (and it's not), but it is indicative of how wet the ground already was. Before it started raining.

After the rain? We had standing water in our backyard. (This, incidentally, is almost Right Above the bathroom where the water was coming in the house. Coincidence? I think not.)

And Mom was just worried about our muddy feet!

Anyhoo, the water was mostly contained by about 9pm (although it was still coming in). The Disaster Recovery people then made a whole bunch of noise setting up fans and a dehumidifier. The good news was that the water stopped seeping in about 11pm (although Mom stayed awake all night to make sure we didn't get more flooding - with all the equipment down there, it would have been disastrous; but it didn't - we've been dry since then *knock on wood*).


They also put up this big barrier to the downstairs - to keep heat down there, so things would dry out. Mom and Dad found out the next day that the downstairs had to be REALLY warm, so they cranked the heat up to 85, shut all the vents upstairs, and did everything they could to get it warm downstairs so things could dry out. To help keep the heat down there, Mom and Dad have taken to accessing the downstairs by going down the outside stairs and entering the house through the garage. Good times.

So, we've got fans running 24/7, and the heat cranked up, so it's noisy and hot all the time. Mom and Dad have had to run the air conditioning in the bedroom to make it liveable.

Seriously, good times.

Or something. I like to bark at the fans, but apparently that is a bit aggravating to Mom and Dad. Hey. Those fans might be planning a revolt. Seriously. I've seen those Terminator movies. We are probably thisclose to the machines taking over the world. Starting with our house. Mom and Dad must be protected.

*ahem*

Anyhoo, since the Day of the Flood, the weather has been cool, and today it actually snowed. (Pictures below.) The cool weather is keeping the snow from melting too fast, and the new snow was only an inch or so. And unlike rain, the new snow didn't melt more snow, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds. And Abby I got to play in the snow today.

Apparently there has been a doggie (or possibly two) in the snow....

Heehee.

We took advantage of today's snow and got in a little bitey-face.

Heehee.

Anyhoo, Mom and Dad are very stressey-ed about the whole flood thing (the fans are STILL here, and the Disaster Man won't be back until tomorrow to tell them if things have dried out enough to take the fans away), and depending on what happens with the weather, they may have to worry about more flooding. Which, of course, means they are worrying a lot, because the weather is supposed to be stormy the next few days. So, that's why Mom hasn't been able to help me post my bloggie or help me go visit friends. Hopefully I'll be able to do some visiting this weekend.

The upside to all of this? After all the mess from the flood, Mom isn't so worried about a few muddy paw prints! :-)

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus