F**K TREES

"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit) 08/29/2018 at 14:32 • Filed to: flooding, flooded, flood

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9 hours. 9  hours without power last night. Came back on at 2AM. $700 and a quarter tank of gas later I got the last generator in a 30 mile radius, but still my basement flooded due to the lack of power to the sump pump.

It was filling the crock when I got home and I knew I had very little time to find a genny, but since we’ve had non-stop rain and outages for three days, EVERYONE was out of stock. I had to travel a whole county and a half over to find one, and even THEN I got the Last One. But hey, it’s Mighty Car Mods Approved!

Overkill and overpriced for what I needed... I guess it’ll be good to have in the future though

But it was too late.

I have soggy carpet, squishy laminate, and about a half of inch of water because though I HAVE a floor drain in the basement, it drains into the laundry/water softener crock for the lift pump. No power to pump that out either. So after an hour or so of setting up the generator, running extension cords, switching between the lift and sump pumps, pulling up carpet, and squeegeeing, I got 1/4 of the basement somewhat dry.

Why only 1/4? Because the stupid floor is graded AWAY from the drain! So my shop has standing water, some of my FIL’s albums are probably ruined, half the carpet in the rec room is toast (but hopefully nothing else), and the laminate in the office had to be pulled up to dry the floor underneath it. UGH. Here’s a quick sketch of my basement layout, and the path the asshole water took:

So what happened to make me hate trees? Well according to the Facebooks I found, a lady’s two old trees had enough of all the rain, and we had a storm blow through at 5pm last night with tornadoes and errthang, and all it took was a quick gust of wind and the trees went down.

There’s also a parked truck under there, somewhere

From the home/tree owner:

But hey! It’s also the 13th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. How do I know that? My oldest daughter turned 13 this morning since she was born during that crazy night of flooding in the south.

Through all this I found time to take her out for Birthday Breakfast, and they made her this cute little cupcake:

Shamoononon drives like a farmer > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:40

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Sorry, what a pain!  

MarquetteLa > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:44

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Fuck above-ground power lines!!

Takuro Spirit > MarquetteLa 08/29/2018 at 14:49

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Those too. But, old small village of 2000 people so.... yeah

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:50

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Ugh... that suuucks.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:51

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Oof...that sucks. We’ve been pretty lucky to the south as most of it has missed us

I’m right near the eastern edge of this blue blob

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:57

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youre in wisconsin right? we got hit pretty bad south of chicago but it wasnt nearly as bad as they were predicting, luckily our basement slopes towards the floor drain in the laundry room, id kill for a sump pump though

functionoverfashion > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 14:58

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Ugh. Sorry to hear that.

As an aside, I could heat my house for half the winter with that tree that fell, wow.

Takuro Spirit > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 08/29/2018 at 14:59

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I’ve been away from social media/news since it happened so I haven’t even seen any of the tornado damage to the north of me

Takuro Spirit > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 08/29/2018 at 14:59

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Yup. Between Milwaukee and Road America.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:00

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I had to help my parents clean up after one went through their town 8 years ago...it’s decidedly not fun

Takuro Spirit > functionoverfashion 08/29/2018 at 15:01

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It’ll make up for all the logs that got swept away from my fire pit when my yard flooded the other day!

^ That WAS full.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:01

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The irony here is that the severity of the storms is being increased by a problem that trees contribute to solving.

It sucks that you may have lost some inportant memories (I’m assuming photo albums) and also property damage of course. We had something similar happen when I was about 16. My parents’ house was over 100 years old, with zero evidence of water in the basement, ever. Then one freak rain storm at the end of March dropped four inches of rain when we still had two feet of snow on the ground, being only the end of March , and water went all kinds of new crazy places. We didn’t even have a sump pump. Try finding one on a Sunday morning in a rural Manitoba in the winter... The fire department was going around pumping people out with their truck. 

Takuro Spirit > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 08/29/2018 at 15:02

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I’ve only had to deal with flooding, both of the rain water and sewer type. Never known anyone who went through wind related damages. I can’t imagine.

Takuro Spirit > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 08/29/2018 at 15:05

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Thankfully nothing of value was on ground level save for some old albums. I’ll have to assess those later as they’re all in boxes.

The cleaning up and removing of material is what I’m most dreading.

I mean, we were planning on re-doing the basement someday anyways....

WilliamsSW > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:08

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That sucks - I’d recommend a battery backup for that sump pump. We had the same shitshow a few years ago, then installed a backup after that. No trouble since, despite a few outages during storms (power is above ground here too).

Fixing that wrong way grade sounds like a huge PITA.  Ugh.  

Takuro Spirit > WilliamsSW 08/29/2018 at 15:13

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I was thinking about it. But since I have the generator now and I’m 5 minutes from home its not a huge issue.

We talked to some neighbors who’ve been here forever and they said the power NEVER goes out for that long, trees NEVER come down, basements NEVER flood.... shoot, ours was finished in the 90's and has never been wet that I can tell.

There’s just been a lot lot lot of rain.

WilliamsSW > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:16

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Yeah, it would definitely be redundant now that you got the generator, but it would give you double redundancy if you wanted to go that route.

Been a weird summer - no rain for such a long time, now it keeps hitting us.  But I’m in the SW burbs of Chicago, and we’re not getting it anywhere near as bad as you.  

Takuro Spirit > WilliamsSW 08/29/2018 at 15:16

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Mother Nature just hates cheese

WiscoProud > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:24

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Sorry to hear that, you guys have been just getting drenched the last two weeks. I don’t have a backup on my sump, but seeing all the flooding statewide, I think i might need to get one. 

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 15:25

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“F**K TREES”

I’m working on it...

;-)

WiscoProud > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 08/29/2018 at 15:26

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You’re not too far from me then. I’m right by the eastern border of Waukesha county in New Berlin. 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > WiscoProud 08/29/2018 at 16:13

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Hey neighbor! I always thought you were in the Madison area for some reason. I’m in Big Bend just down the road

WiscoProud > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 08/29/2018 at 16:20

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Oh yeah, you really aren’t far in that case. 

Mid Engine > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 16:22

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It happens a lot in Washington State, once it starts rain ing for the season the huge trees start coming down. The soil gets saturated and the weight of the tree causes it to come down, wiping out a lot of shit. First place I’ve lived where I keep a generator ready to go..

Oh, it’s rained one inch, in total, since May 1st.  End of September the rain starts..

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 17:01

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No insurance ??

McMike > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 17:04

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Meanwhile, Puerto Rico be like

Takuro Spirit > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 08/29/2018 at 17:07

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We have it. Will be calling.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 17:07

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gotcha.  Good luck!  

Takuro Spirit > McMike 08/29/2018 at 17:09

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They have such small trees. Lucky.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 17:36

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Where Katrina was bad for New Orleans, primarily due to flooding, Gustav was bad for Baton Rouge, primarily because of downed trees. We ran North to Arkansas to escape Gustav. While we were there, we managed to buy a generator, six gas cans, and all the fuel we needed . It was a good thing we did because the last fuel we found when we headed home was several hours north of Baton Rouge.

Our power was out for two weeks. A friend of mine didn’t get power back at his house for two months.    

Takuro Spirit > TheRealBicycleBuck 08/29/2018 at 18:03

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Yikees

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Takuro Spirit 08/29/2018 at 18:11

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Get even: buy a gas powered chainsaw. :p

I should clarify: for use on the  trees. Not the old lady who owned them.