Flood Status Update

I wanted to get some pictures up of the damage from the flood. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the house when the water was at it's highest. I wasn't thinking about pictures at that time, as you might imagine. I started taking pictures after Lorne had extracted the two inches of standing water, and they were trying to get the wet carpet and pad up as quickly as possible to minimize further damage. Believe it or not, Beulah slept through the whole ordeal. There was metal on metal hammering, drilling, loud talking over machines and equipment, ect. Andy and Lorne were running around ripping up carpet and linoleum like they were in a race. It was pretty crazy to watch! I can't say enough about how grateful we are for Lorne and H2O Drying Solutions. The damage would have been A LOT worse if it weren't for him.

These are not great videos, but they give you a good idea of what we were dealing with.
Water running around from behind our building, across our front yards and down the street.


Water running across our patio just outside our back door.


The downstairs is still gutted, but we have some incredibly generous friends coming tomorrow to repair the dry wall and we should have new floors in sometime next week. Lorne ended up having to take out the cabinets on the wall between us and our neighbor where the water was coming in so that he could cut out the wet dry wall. The cabinets seem to be OK, thank God. Insurance won't pay for any of this, even though it came in through our neighbor's unit. The insurance adjuster said that Andy was mislead when he was told that there may be a chance they'd cover it if it didn't come through our back door, but came from the neighbor's unit instead. We didn't have flood insurance because we were told that we weren't in the flood plain. But, Andy requested a copy of the FEMA report from last year, and it looks like we ARE in the flood plain (duh!) and should have been notified by our mortgage company. We've got a little more investigating to do on that issue. Meanwhile, the City of Fort Mill is investigating where the responsibility lies and will hopefully be fixing the storm drain and raising the levee soon to prevent this from happening again (see video below). It makes us kind of wary to replace the floors if there's a chance this could happen again, and we've got rain coming this weekend. But, our house is unlivable as it is, so we need to move ahead.

We're still at Mike and Ria's house, and we're all really enjoying living together! I stay here with Beulah during the day and clean and cook when I can, then when Andy, Mike & Ria get home from work, we all eat together, play with Beulah, and then relax until bed. It's been fun! We're incredibly grateful for their generosity in opening their home to us. Many of you have also offered your homes and other resources, and we couldn't be more humbled by the offers to help. We are so so so blessed! Thank you, and thank God for you!!

Looking in from the outside, this all might seem like a mess. But, God is sovereign. This was no surprise to Him. He had a plan before it happened, and he's allowed many blessings to come from this. Our trials are never in vain. I have always said that the worst things that have ever happened to me are the best things that have ever happened to me. (I wouldn't have met Andy if I hadn't broken my neck, for example!) Here are just a few of the blessings that have come from this experience.

*Spending extended time and sharing space with Mike & Ria has been an incredible blessing; not just for us, but for Beulah as well. She interacts with them on a whole new level, and they don't seem to mind. :)
*H2O Drying Solutions got a lot of business because neighbors in need saw Lorne's business truck on our road in the middle of the night. They have worked tirelessly all week helping us and our neighbors.
*We have connected with a neighbor that we had a strained relationship with.
*We've connected with neighbors that we didn't know before, and Andy (along with the rest of the HOA board) had a chance to help them out post-flood. See the media coverage by WCNC here.
*Friends and family have pulled together and helped emotionally, spiritually (through prayer and encouragement), financially, materially, and physically (giving food and lodging). Thank you, all of you!

We'll continue to follow the story on whether the city will take responsibility for what happened or not.