(W)hat (T)he (F)lood?!?

A few weeks ago we had a hard rain here in Seattle on a Saturday morning. After a quick jaunt over to QFC I looked down the stairs to my Mom's unit and saw water about shin deep through the whole courtyard. I called Paul to get his behind home from basketball just as my Mom pulled up. I shoved Leah in her hands and went wading down the stairs. I spent the next few hours doing the following:

1) shoving every piece of furniture in my Mom's condo up against the wall away from the flooding side of the unit single-handedly (I got superhuman strength)
2) rolling up and moving huge area rugs
3) yelling at Paul to do certain things
4) shoving towels down in areas that seemed to have more water coming through
5) bailing out water from her patio area to a higher drain

Paul spent those hours doing the following:

1) hauling sandbags from the storage area and putting them down around every inch of the outside of my Mom's condo
2) laying down flat on his stomach in said water in order to try to clear out blocked drains
3) pumping water out of the patio area
4) hauling rugs up the stairs to air out over the balcony
5) helping sweep water out of the storage areas

We were both WORN OUT by the time everything got under control. The whole thing happened so fast, no one is really sure what the problem was. Some people think it was the drains in the courtyard being plugged, some people think it was overflow of city water since the city drains were clogged, and some people have their own theories too crazy to mention. All I know is that thanks to our quick work, none of my Mom's stuff was affected except for a couple rugs which we were able to have cleaned. Thank goodness for tile floors and a landlord who was there in 30 minutes with a cleanup crew. It was the best workout I've had in the last six months so I think I'm good to go on excercise for the rest of 2009.

Pre-flood:















Mid-flood: