Just keep getting kicked when I'm down!

Joined
Apr 9, 2008
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Location
Central NY
2021 is a far worse year than 2020 for me.

From mid May to mid July, my father was hospitalized from an infection. The first few weeks were the infection, but for a month we dealt with Parkinson's. We didn't know it was Parkinsons, nor did the doctors. But there was another month in rehab, a quick trip or two back to the hospital (once for a transfusion from bleeding). Rough two months coming so close to losing my father that many times. Hes back home now, thankfully, in some ways he is better than before, in other ways he is not as good as before.

I'm glad to be working and i have been doing that! 50 hours most weeks. And working on the house most nights.

However, I won't be working on the house any more. At least for a while.

Woke up this morning to the remnants of some sort of tropical storm. Heard my home sump pump running a lot but I didn't realize how bad it was. Had about two feet of standing water in my garage. The house was almost flooded up to the floor joists. Had to move the Nissan and Subaru so they wouldn't get damaged with all the water.

Unfortunately I lost a lot of tools in my garage. All of my power tools for working on the house (and vehicles). The water level was so high , it got into the toolbox where I had all of my air tools. My new Titanium welder, new air compressor. Generator's a gonner. Lawnmower was completely submerged. Not sure on the snowblower, water was up to the oil fill on that . Will have to try to change the grease in the auger and regrease. My small genertor and all my hand tools. Unfortunately it got into a few kerosene heaters so there's nasty kerosene water in the garage.

Today's project is pumping and pumping and pumping. Ran a line about 50 feet down the road so I don't flood anyone else. Cleaning out the garage now. Bagging everything. Also buying all of the box fans I can to keep the garage from molding up.
 
Where did the water come from? I'm oblivious as here in Phoenix, we don't have basements, crawl spaces, or sump pumps. If the garage was flooded here, so would the entire neighborhood as everything is level.
 
In the case of my home, i have high bedrock in the back of my lot; torrents that saturate the earth will cause water to come up thru the dirt floor in my basement.

My WH and furnace are all elevated.
That doesn't really explain it. Remnants from a storm may mean the roof leaked and flooded the house, the warer outside came in through a doorway, the sump pump failed and overflowed, groundwater seeped in through the basement walls and caused flooding, etc.
 
Sorry to hear about this. Just try to get through it one day at a time. Hopefully you can dry out some of those tools and it won't be a total loss.

That would have been much worse of you were out of town and you didn't catch this.
 
Sorry it’s been a rough year. Check your insurance policy first as you may have some sort of coverage although flooding is not a part of the standard form and this sounds like a flood and not a sewer backup or roof leak. What a giant PITA water can be.
 
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I feel you brotha. Breathe and take 1 step at a time. Map out on paper what priorities come first. Tackle one item at a time and see the progress. Life kicks us all in the ballz! It's how you deal with it.
 
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I’m really sorry to hear this, bud. If you’re stretched to the limit cash-wise (I don’t think you are), then I’d suggest opening a gofundme account. I know I’d throw a few bucks your way to help out.

That doesn't really explain it. Remnants from a storm may mean the roof leaked and flooded the house, the warer outside came in through a doorway, the sump pump failed and overflowed, groundwater seeped in through the basement walls and caused flooding, etc.

Right. Was the whole street flooded or was this due to poor arrangement and drainage or something else?
 
Where did the water come from? I'm oblivious as here in Phoenix, we don't have basements, crawl spaces, or sump pumps. If the garage was flooded here, so would the entire neighborhood as everything is level.

I'm on a lake so there's a pretty high water table. There's a few built up lots between mine and the lake so it seems to collect here and not make it any further. Usually never have too much problem. I do have a pump in the back yard (real MVP, been running since 830AM today nonstop) for when we get a lot of rain.

The most I've ever had in the garage was about 6 inches a few years ago. We got 5 inches of rain in a few hours - i have everything on pallets so no problems. However, this morning there was a few feet so anything not on a high shelf was submerged.


I did try insurance but of course that's a no. I can't get flood insurance where I am .... even though 2 adjacent lots which are 4' higher than mine are in flood zones. Mine isn't, so I can't get flood insurance.


The air compressor and snowblower came around. Changed out the oil on both. The air compressor was sitting on a shelf about a foot high so the water didn't quite make it up to the top where the electronics are. Snowblower runs but I don't want to mess up the friction drive; the water was very oily. Hoping I don't have to change that.

I have some fans blowing on the welder and generator hoping they aren't ruined.

Spent all day bagging stuff and loading it into the truck. Going to have to make a dump run on Saturday to get rid of everything that's waterlogged.
 
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Check with your insurance agent. Homeowner's policy (less deductible) may cover costs of removing water, possibly your labor hours to do so, and some/all of your lost belongings. In the meantime, keep receipts for what you need to purchase/rent to mitigate the damage.
Yes definately check your H.O policy to see if you have NIFP. Flooding is handled by the National Flood Insurance Program, which would handle your claim if you are on a flood plain zone. I am a licensed insurance adjuster, but it's been years since my licensing test and I don't deal with homeowners stuff. I would recommend that before you do anything take alot of pictures (or even a good video)of the flooded areas, the items damaged etc. Also be aware that it is the homeowners responsability to mitigate damages to prevent further damage. Call your agent right now and document the call as well as what you talked about. After that call your H.O. insurance company a start a claim, that way an adjuster will begin the claim processand research what is covered under your policy, when you call it in you are presenting your insurer with a proof of loss, as such insurance companies must do a full investigation (basically you are protecting your rights as an insured and placing the burden of proof on them) I hope this helps and I hope life gets better, just take it day by day and try to stay positive. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
 
+1 on the homeowners insurance idea. Even if you don't have flood insurance, your homeowners insurance may cover the damages especially if the rain/flood is due to a named (ie, verifiable) storm/event.

Having gone through this a couple times (not to this extent), wishing you all the best.
 
I’m really sorry to hear this, bud. If you’re stretched to the limit cash-wise (I don’t think you are), then I’d suggest opening a gofundme account. I know I’d throw a few bucks your way to help out.



Right. Was the whole street flooded or was this due to poor arrangement and drainage or something else?

Poor drainage and my lack of connection to a storm sewer.

I created a diagram, think I blocked everything out

Orange rectangle is my property. The property directly south of mine is built up higher than mine (about 50 years newer). The blue lines are underground storm sewers that carry water from the other side of the orange road. The yellow arrows are water flow.

The orange road is about 15' higher than my house.

The red line is just a culvert. Everything dumps from there into my backyard and stops at my back yard.

Most of the year, the water table is only about a foot below the floor of my crawlspace.
 

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You should definitely call your insurance. I am not sure how they classify a flood. If the lake level rose I can see that being a flood but if its runoff from other properties onto you I would think that would be classified the same way a sewer overflow would be.
 
Very sorry for your headaches and expenses incurred.

It seems you are saying that a culvert installed on a public road is dumping water directly onto your property and that some 50 years ago a dam was allowed to be built directly south of your lot.

Have you developed a plan to resolve future floods? Is there a drain commissioner in your county that is responsible for managing this situation? Can you tap into the sewage drains? Regrade your property to develop a swale that dumps the water away from your property? Any legal remedies?
 
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I did try insurance but of course that's a no. I can't get flood insurance where I am .... even though 2 adjacent lots which are 4' higher than mine are in flood zones. Mine isn't, so I can't get flood insurance.
Did you try a different insurance company? Maybe the person you spoke to didn't know the rules.

 
I’m really sorry to hear this, bud. If you’re stretched to the limit cash-wise (I don’t think you are), then I’d suggest opening a gofundme account. I know I’d throw a few bucks your way to help out.



Right. Was the whole street flooded or was this due to poor arrangement and drainage or something else?
Good idea with the Gofundme account. With the mods approval put a link to it in this thread. Even though the edit time has past the mods can perhaps put it in the OP so it doesn’t get lost in the thread where people miss it.
 
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