Posted: 9/30/2013 10:54:26 AM EDT
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1. Just because you are prepared, doesn’t mean you can prepare for everything. There simply isn’t enough time and money to do everything, so you prioritize based upon what you believe to be reasonable threats. I don’t live in a flood plain, I specifically researched that when I bought the place, and the river is a ¼ mile to the south and has never crossed the railroad tracks between the river and my house in the entire history of the town. My house is probably 15 feet higher than the river at its normal flow. Didn’t matter.
2.Watch your six. The river didn’t get us, it came from behind us and uphill. (the top of the street (north) is easily another 10 to 15 feet higher than me, yet the water came from above us and it came as a wall. My detached garage sits lower than the house, the river was raging and I thought it might go over the RR tracks and start backing up into the garage. A friend showed up to help me pack and said “hey, the water is coming over the ditch (to our west) and I knew we were screwed. Within 20 minutes there was a two foot river rolling across our road, west to east. I yelled at my neighbors to get out and wailed on the air horn driving out, but at least one neighbor never saw it coming and had to walk out in 2 feet of raging water. 3.You can plan to bug in all you want (and most situations I do), but you cant’ compete with a wall of water, you’ re getting out, you better get ready. 4.Don’t futz about. If you think it’s getting bad, it’s getting bad and it’s time to go or make preparations to go. I was lucky, I saw the water getting high on the other side of the RR tracks and called the wife and told her to get home. It took her two hours and it’s normally a 20 minute drive. Within an hour after her getting home, all the ways north to south were closed. Some of those bridges no longer exist now. Items/people/stores on the other side of the river from us might have well have been on the moon. I was the only person on my block to pack anything. I was packing the garage (tools, ammo, etc), but I still futzed about and stopped to look at the river a couple times. If it’s time to go, it’s time to go. One neighbor lost two classic cars he had restored because he moved his RV then went to look at the river, got stuck in traffic and by the time he got back, there was 2’ of water across the road. 5.Update your 72 hour bags. Yeah, we had them, yeah they made it, but lot of my wife’s medication was different, and that’s a serious problem when no one can move around or get to work and the whole prescription thing is a damn disaster anyway. 6.Need more flashlights and batteries. Can’t have enough. Most of the town’s power stayed on and it hit us during the day. It would have been much much worse if it had hit at night. More light. 7.Get the pets first. By the time the water really started coming at us, we were just grabbing expensive stuff and tossing it in cars/RV’s and the pets can sense the fear and the cats went into hiding. Grab them first, chuck them in carriers/cars/whatever and they are handled and done. 8.Have enough drivers for the cars. Luckily a friend coming to help out brought his nephew. A 20 year old who I had not met but 20 minutes before, handed him the keys to my truck and said “drive out, be careful”. He said later he was scared. He wasn’t the only one. 9.Make sure your bug out vehicle is loaded and ready to go. I was lucky, I had spent all day two days before getting the RV ready for a hunting trip (ruined by flood), so it was full of water and everything worked. More importantly I moved it first, and it takes forever to get air in, get the jacks up, unplugged, etc. I’m still living in that RV and I’m happy to have it. 10.New cars suck. Neighbor to the south left after us, new Volvo made it about 300 feet til it went “click”. Total loss, luckily the husband had a big truck and had to come back and get his wife. They lost another newer mini-van. Neighbor to the north that had to walk out his cars were in garage and flooded. Mini-van dead, newer little car dead. Mid 80’s chevy pickup truck, flooded to 3’ tall, changed oil and fluids, still runs fine. 11.Don’t store stuff in your crawl space. It all falls apart and gets flooded and the remains of the boxes plug up the pump. 12.Don’t put your safe/ammo in the basement. Didn’t happen to me, but the list is endless of people’s guns and ammo ruined (or almost) by being stuck in the basement. 13.Government is zero fucking help. No warning, no cars with loudspeakers, they didn’t even set off the emergency sirens. (I don’t live on the edge of town, 100’s of people had gotten hit by the time it got to me). All the statist policemen are busy guarding the way after you have already gotten out with nasty armed attitudes. (seriously, you know who you are). Most policemen were pretty cool, but some ruin it for all. My neighbor was out of town; I was calling her and telling her to have her friends come get her valuables and her dog. The friends came, and left the dog cuz the street was dry (see #4). An hour later it was too late. I told her I would try to get the dog if it came, but it came too fast, we barely got out at all. I told the cop at the top of the street. I told another cop later that afternoon. I told the rescue dispatcher on scene the following day. They all said it would get handled. Two days later I convinced a cop to let me walk down my street in less water than I drove out in to check on my (mostly dead) chickens. I looked in on all the neighbor’s house and what did I find? The damn dog, which I had to carry out. In jeans and boots. Government is zero fucking help and mostly a hindrance. FEMA is a fucking joke. 14.Join a church. I do not care if you are religious and I don’t care which one. Someday you are going to need help for something and church volunteers of all Christian and Jewish types did ALL the heavy lifting, organization and lots of the work for everyone around. They still are, more than 2 weeks later. My church members helped me get cleaned up. And other members tend to have things you don’t or did have but no longer do. (pumps, pressure washers, generators, whatever) 15.Have a checklist of stuff you need to get. When panic time comes you well, panic and stuff gets forgotten. Meds, important papers, money, pictures, irreplaceable stuff. 16.Emergency money. You need a lot and it probably should be in cash. The power stayed on, but if it had gone down, all the credit cards and debit cards in the world would have done zippo good. It’s easily going to cost me 15 grand or more to get back and I didn’t get hit nearly as hard as a bunch of people. It’s all uninsured. (none of us live in a flood plain). Cash is king for getting contractors too. Everyone needs a contractor, the people with cash go to the head of the line. The town to the west of me (Lyons) is uninhabitable for 2-6 months. Think about how much money that is going to burn. ETA 17. Freezers float. I did not know this (almost no one I ask knows this). Big chest freezers, full of food, be good for days if the power goes out. Right up until they float and flip over. I had stacked tons of crap on top of them too (up high) and all that got dumped. I guess you are supposed to strap them down or something. |
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Excellent post. Thanks for that, and hope things work out for you - and hope the RV works out as the temperature drops. It really shows the importance of community, and good neighbors.
Remember, though, those emergency workers and cops have houses and families in the area as well, and weren't able to be doing what you and others were doing because they had to be at work. |
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I'm sorry about what happened to you but thanks for sharing your experience.
Indeed, when people go "oh, but I'm planning to bug in, so I dont worry about bugging out and that sort of stuff..." . I cant help thinking "well buddy, good luck with that if your house burns down along with everything in it or a natural desaster destroys everything you own". If you dont mind me asking, what were the things you just couldnt leave behind? I'm thinking important documents but also wedding album, family pictures among other things of sentimental value. FerFAL |
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I'm sorry about what happened to you but thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, when people go "oh, but I'm planning to bug in, so I dont worry about bugging out and that sort of stuff..." . I cant help thinking "well buddy, good luck with that if your house burns down along with everything in it or a natural desaster destroys everything you own". If you dont mind me asking, what were the things you just couldnt leave behind? I'm thinking important documents but also wedding album, family pictures among other things of sentimental value. FerFAL things I should have grabbed or things I did?????? things I should have grabbed but didn't: wife's meds (the better solution is mine, get off the goddamn medicine treadmill) photo albums (can't replace them) gold/silver things I did grab computer (just the box, monitor and such all got left) cash pets wedding photo's most of the guns things I should have moved up high some of the guns that got left. ammo. It's all sitting on the floor in different closets cuz i'ts heavy. this might not be the best solution. antique/heirloom furniture. But i'm really not sure what you could do with it. things that I need to rethink I have a whole house generator. It's somewhat portable, but it probably weighs 200+pounds (You roll it around, then hook it up). My theory was always that a high probability problem was losing power in the winter. It's happened a couple times and I'm still golden and nothing freezes. But it's too heavy to move into a truck really (and would take up a lot of it). I moved it to the highest spot in the property and left it, but it still got wet and wouldn't work. not really sure why at this point, but it's at the shop now. A generator is golden. Lots of people had small electric pumps, but that's worthless when you are talking about pumping out FEET of water out of a basement/crawl space. I now own a gas pump, which was great and pumped out pretty much the entire street. Luckily the power came back on late in the first day they let us back in, so that helped a lot. Since the power went down about 30 minutes before we got hit, a sump pump would have done nothing. and no way could it have kept up. need a lot more flashlights. I hate (and always have) the fact that my furnace is in the crawl space. But there's simply no where to put it up top. But if you are designing/building a house, don't put it down below. That is by far my biggest expense. the whole bug in vs. bug out. Oh, every car needs a 72 hour kit we've decided. What if my wife could not have gotten home? What if we get a big blizzard (more likely than a fucking flood), etc. Need more stuff where we can get to it. |
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things I should have grabbed or things I did?????? things I should have grabbed but didn't: wife's meds (the better solution is mine, get off the goddamn medicine treadmill) photo albums (can't replace them) gold/silver things I did grab computer (just the box, monitor and such all got left) cash pets wedding photo's most of the guns things I should have moved up high some of the guns that got left. ammo. It's all sitting on the floor in different closets cuz i'ts heavy. this might not be the best solution. antique/heirloom furniture. But i'm really not sure what you could do with it. things that I need to rethink I have a whole house generator. It's somewhat portable, but it probably weighs 200+pounds (You roll it around, then hook it up). My theory was always that a high probability problem was losing power in the winter. It's happened a couple times and I'm still golden and nothing freezes. But it's too heavy to move into a truck really (and would take up a lot of it). I moved it to the highest spot in the property and left it, but it still got wet and wouldn't work. not really sure why at this point, but it's at the shop now. A generator is golden. Lots of people had small electric pumps, but that's worthless when you are talking about pumping out FEET of water out of a basement/crawl space. I now own a gas pump, which was great and pumped out pretty much the entire street. Luckily the power came back on late in the first day they let us back in, so that helped a lot. Since the power went down about 30 minutes before we got hit, a sump pump would have done nothing. and no way could it have kept up. need a lot more flashlights. I hate (and always have) the fact that my furnace is in the crawl space. But there's simply no where to put it up top. But if you are designing/building a house, don't put it down below. That is by far my biggest expense. the whole bug in vs. bug out. Oh, every car needs a 72 hour kit we've decided. What if my wife could not have gotten home? What if we get a big blizzard (more likely than a fucking flood), etc. Need more stuff where we can get to it. Quoted:
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I'm sorry about what happened to you but thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, when people go "oh, but I'm planning to bug in, so I dont worry about bugging out and that sort of stuff..." . I cant help thinking "well buddy, good luck with that if your house burns down along with everything in it or a natural desaster destroys everything you own". If you dont mind me asking, what were the things you just couldnt leave behind? I'm thinking important documents but also wedding album, family pictures among other things of sentimental value. FerFAL things I should have grabbed or things I did?????? things I should have grabbed but didn't: wife's meds (the better solution is mine, get off the goddamn medicine treadmill) photo albums (can't replace them) gold/silver things I did grab computer (just the box, monitor and such all got left) cash pets wedding photo's most of the guns things I should have moved up high some of the guns that got left. ammo. It's all sitting on the floor in different closets cuz i'ts heavy. this might not be the best solution. antique/heirloom furniture. But i'm really not sure what you could do with it. things that I need to rethink I have a whole house generator. It's somewhat portable, but it probably weighs 200+pounds (You roll it around, then hook it up). My theory was always that a high probability problem was losing power in the winter. It's happened a couple times and I'm still golden and nothing freezes. But it's too heavy to move into a truck really (and would take up a lot of it). I moved it to the highest spot in the property and left it, but it still got wet and wouldn't work. not really sure why at this point, but it's at the shop now. A generator is golden. Lots of people had small electric pumps, but that's worthless when you are talking about pumping out FEET of water out of a basement/crawl space. I now own a gas pump, which was great and pumped out pretty much the entire street. Luckily the power came back on late in the first day they let us back in, so that helped a lot. Since the power went down about 30 minutes before we got hit, a sump pump would have done nothing. and no way could it have kept up. need a lot more flashlights. I hate (and always have) the fact that my furnace is in the crawl space. But there's simply no where to put it up top. But if you are designing/building a house, don't put it down below. That is by far my biggest expense. the whole bug in vs. bug out. Oh, every car needs a 72 hour kit we've decided. What if my wife could not have gotten home? What if we get a big blizzard (more likely than a fucking flood), etc. Need more stuff where we can get to it. Not sure where your wife was mindset-wise before this, but this could really be a blessing in disguise - getting her "buy-in," if you will. |
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Not sure where your wife was mindset-wise before this, but this could really be a blessing in disguise - getting her "buy-in," if you will. Quoted:
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I'm sorry about what happened to you but thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, when people go "oh, but I'm planning to bug in, so I dont worry about bugging out and that sort of stuff..." . I cant help thinking "well buddy, good luck with that if your house burns down along with everything in it or a natural desaster destroys everything you own". If you dont mind me asking, what were the things you just couldnt leave behind? I'm thinking important documents but also wedding album, family pictures among other things of sentimental value. FerFAL things I should have grabbed or things I did?????? things I should have grabbed but didn't: wife's meds (the better solution is mine, get off the goddamn medicine treadmill) photo albums (can't replace them) gold/silver things I did grab computer (just the box, monitor and such all got left) cash pets wedding photo's most of the guns things I should have moved up high some of the guns that got left. ammo. It's all sitting on the floor in different closets cuz i'ts heavy. this might not be the best solution. antique/heirloom furniture. But i'm really not sure what you could do with it. things that I need to rethink I have a whole house generator. It's somewhat portable, but it probably weighs 200+pounds (You roll it around, then hook it up). My theory was always that a high probability problem was losing power in the winter. It's happened a couple times and I'm still golden and nothing freezes. But it's too heavy to move into a truck really (and would take up a lot of it). I moved it to the highest spot in the property and left it, but it still got wet and wouldn't work. not really sure why at this point, but it's at the shop now. A generator is golden. Lots of people had small electric pumps, but that's worthless when you are talking about pumping out FEET of water out of a basement/crawl space. I now own a gas pump, which was great and pumped out pretty much the entire street. Luckily the power came back on late in the first day they let us back in, so that helped a lot. Since the power went down about 30 minutes before we got hit, a sump pump would have done nothing. and no way could it have kept up. need a lot more flashlights. I hate (and always have) the fact that my furnace is in the crawl space. But there's simply no where to put it up top. But if you are designing/building a house, don't put it down below. That is by far my biggest expense. the whole bug in vs. bug out. Oh, every car needs a 72 hour kit we've decided. What if my wife could not have gotten home? What if we get a big blizzard (more likely than a fucking flood), etc. Need more stuff where we can get to it. Not sure where your wife was mindset-wise before this, but this could really be a blessing in disguise - getting her "buy-in," if you will. oh no, she's a big prepper herself but the meds are her issue. (most women's issues if I had to guess) By the time she got here, within 30 minutes it all went to $hit there's a reason it's called panic time. Are there things I could have done better? tons But I"m the only person on my street who got stuff out, all his cars, all my tools and ammo from the garage, and got everyone out didn't have to be rescued and got all the animals out (except the chickens not sure what you do there, it didn't matter, it simply came in too fast) |
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(except the chickens not sure what you do there, it didn't matter, it simply came in too fast) Those poor chickens. 
You gotta think third world here. Cages on top of the car. 
If you roll the windows down and play tejano music, no one will bat an eye. Or just cut their heads off, skin'em, gut'em, ice them down and eat. |
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oh no, she's a big prepper herself but the meds are her issue. (most women's issues if I had to guess) By the time she got here, within 30 minutes it all went to $hit there's a reason it's called panic time. Are there things I could have done better? tons But I"m the only person on my street who got stuff out, all his cars, all my tools and ammo from the garage, and got everyone out didn't have to be rescued and got all the animals out (except the chickens not sure what you do there, it didn't matter, it simply came in too fast) Quoted:
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I'm sorry about what happened to you but thanks for sharing your experience. Indeed, when people go "oh, but I'm planning to bug in, so I dont worry about bugging out and that sort of stuff..." . I cant help thinking "well buddy, good luck with that if your house burns down along with everything in it or a natural desaster destroys everything you own". If you dont mind me asking, what were the things you just couldnt leave behind? I'm thinking important documents but also wedding album, family pictures among other things of sentimental value. FerFAL things I should have grabbed or things I did?????? things I should have grabbed but didn't: wife's meds (the better solution is mine, get off the goddamn medicine treadmill) photo albums (can't replace them) gold/silver things I did grab computer (just the box, monitor and such all got left) cash pets wedding photo's most of the guns things I should have moved up high some of the guns that got left. ammo. It's all sitting on the floor in different closets cuz i'ts heavy. this might not be the best solution. antique/heirloom furniture. But i'm really not sure what you could do with it. things that I need to rethink I have a whole house generator. It's somewhat portable, but it probably weighs 200+pounds (You roll it around, then hook it up). My theory was always that a high probability problem was losing power in the winter. It's happened a couple times and I'm still golden and nothing freezes. But it's too heavy to move into a truck really (and would take up a lot of it). I moved it to the highest spot in the property and left it, but it still got wet and wouldn't work. not really sure why at this point, but it's at the shop now. A generator is golden. Lots of people had small electric pumps, but that's worthless when you are talking about pumping out FEET of water out of a basement/crawl space. I now own a gas pump, which was great and pumped out pretty much the entire street. Luckily the power came back on late in the first day they let us back in, so that helped a lot. Since the power went down about 30 minutes before we got hit, a sump pump would have done nothing. and no way could it have kept up. need a lot more flashlights. I hate (and always have) the fact that my furnace is in the crawl space. But there's simply no where to put it up top. But if you are designing/building a house, don't put it down below. That is by far my biggest expense. the whole bug in vs. bug out. Oh, every car needs a 72 hour kit we've decided. What if my wife could not have gotten home? What if we get a big blizzard (more likely than a fucking flood), etc. Need more stuff where we can get to it. Not sure where your wife was mindset-wise before this, but this could really be a blessing in disguise - getting her "buy-in," if you will. oh no, she's a big prepper herself but the meds are her issue. (most women's issues if I had to guess) By the time she got here, within 30 minutes it all went to $hit there's a reason it's called panic time. Are there things I could have done better? tons But I"m the only person on my street who got stuff out, all his cars, all my tools and ammo from the garage, and got everyone out didn't have to be rescued and got all the animals out (except the chickens not sure what you do there, it didn't matter, it simply came in too fast) Sounds to me as if you did everything you could. There's a point where you just have to be grateful that no one was hurt, that you got some of your important stuff safe and the rest well, not much that can be done about it. Hopefully insurance will take care of it. FerFAL |
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I think many of us in CO learned a lot. I had read an article where there was talk of the BOB being a dumb concept, because there was no situation they could think of where they had to leave their home in a hurry. "Flood" is a damn good justification for a BOB. |
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Sounds to me as if you did everything you could. There's a point where you just have to be grateful that no one was hurt, that you got some of your important stuff safe and the rest well, not much that can be done about it. Hopefully insurance will take care of it. FerFAL yeah, I did what I could do, never envisioned what could happen. But I could always do things better and I certainly learned things, things that could help others. (like that cute house next to the river to retire to, NFW now :-) ) IIRC you're in Argentina right? In the states, if you aren't in a flood plain, you can't even buy flood insurance (not that you would) and property insurance specifically excludes damages from floods or rising waters. No insurance, all cash. almost everyone who is wiped out doesn't have flood insurance and would not have had the chance to buy it. Honestly, we did get lucky, it didn't hit the main floor and people just west of me get hit a lot harder than that, and the next town up river is literally decimated. 1 in 8 houses are gone. Not damaged, gone. But it's just luck, better to plan and try and execute better for whatever comes next. |
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Thanks for posting. I love reading stuff like this. It motivates me to do better.
One question, what do you mean about needing more flashlights? I have a few good flashlights and lots of batteries. Is there an important reason to have lots of flashlights? I am genuinely curious if I have missed something important. |
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yeah, I did what I could do, never envisioned what could happen. But I could always do things better and I certainly learned things, things that could help others. (like that cute house next to the river to retire to, NFW now :-) ) IIRC you're in Argentina right? In the states, if you aren't in a flood plain, you can't even buy flood insurance (not that you would) and property insurance specifically excludes damages from floods or rising waters. No insurance, all cash. almost everyone who is wiped out doesn't have flood insurance and would not have had the chance to buy it. Honestly, we did get lucky, it didn't hit the main floor and people just west of me get hit a lot harder than that, and the next town up river is literally decimated. 1 in 8 houses are gone. Not damaged, gone. But it's just luck, better to plan and try and execute better for whatever comes next. Quoted:
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Sounds to me as if you did everything you could. There's a point where you just have to be grateful that no one was hurt, that you got some of your important stuff safe and the rest well, not much that can be done about it. Hopefully insurance will take care of it. FerFAL yeah, I did what I could do, never envisioned what could happen. But I could always do things better and I certainly learned things, things that could help others. (like that cute house next to the river to retire to, NFW now :-) ) IIRC you're in Argentina right? In the states, if you aren't in a flood plain, you can't even buy flood insurance (not that you would) and property insurance specifically excludes damages from floods or rising waters. No insurance, all cash. almost everyone who is wiped out doesn't have flood insurance and would not have had the chance to buy it. Honestly, we did get lucky, it didn't hit the main floor and people just west of me get hit a lot harder than that, and the next town up river is literally decimated. 1 in 8 houses are gone. Not damaged, gone. But it's just luck, better to plan and try and execute better for whatever comes next. Yes, but I moved out of Argentina about two years ago and now live in Ireland. I'm close to the Irish sea, that would be to the east of the island of Ireland and about 60 meters above sea level. I also checked the flood maps to make sure I was a good distance away from any of them since occasionaly there are floods here as well. But hey, if the sea level goes up 60 meters I'm still screwed. Too bad about the insurance. That would be something to consider. Anything the insueance company isnt willing to insure its likely enough to happen. Thanks for sharing your experiences and I'm glad you did well during such a hard test on your preps. FerFAL |
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At the risk of being accused of trolling, I just have to ask for more info about this not being able to get flood insurance thing. I have personally never not been able to secure flood insurance in the US. I think you are right to ask. Laws and regulations do change. FERFAL, if you can, get to a free state in America or, if necessary, Canada. We are more stable than any part of Europe, in more ways than one. |
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I think you are right to ask. Laws and regulations do change. FERFAL, if you can, get to a free state in America or, if necessary, Canada. We are more stable than any part of Europe, in more ways than one. Quoted:
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At the risk of being accused of trolling, I just have to ask for more info about this not being able to get flood insurance thing. I have personally never not been able to secure flood insurance in the US. I think you are right to ask. Laws and regulations do change. FERFAL, if you can, get to a free state in America or, if necessary, Canada. We are more stable than any part of Europe, in more ways than one. I agree 100% and would love to but getting into USA is pretty much impossible unless you have someone hiring you and gets you a work visa. FerFAL |
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What city do you live in? I was in Greeley for it, in Estes park for. Family reunion the week before!
Can we use this to pound home the concept that beans, water, documents, commo, pills, and shelter are often more important that guns and ammo? OP, did you put on your plate carrier and sling your AR over your back or did you do a press check on your CCW and grab more water? Honest question for all to ponder. I would love matching SCARs and PVS14s for me and the little lady but cash in the safe and equipped BOBs are a better use of funds Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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So was this considered a 100 year flood, 1k year flood? How unprecedented is this? I have family in CO, but down in Westcliffe. Quoted:
So was this considered a 100 year flood, 1k year flood? How unprecedented is this? I have family in CO, but down in Westcliffe. Here's a quote that sums up how bad it was: On average Boulder receives about 1.7 inches of rain during the month of September. As of 7 AM on September 16, Boulder had received 17.17 inches of rain so far in the month, smashing the all-time record of 9.59 inches set in May of 1995. 9.08 inches fell on Sept. 12, nearly doubling the previous daily record of 4.80 inches set on July 31, 1919. In fact, Boulder has already broken its yearly record for precipitation—with more than three months left in the year, and the rain still falling.
Parts of Boulder are experiencing a 1-in-1,000 year flood. That doesn’t literally mean that the kind of rainfall seen over the past week only occurs once in a millennium. Rather, it means that a flood of this magnitude only has a 0.1% chance of happening in a given year. This is historically bad luck, due in part to the combination of an active, drenching Southwest monsoon and a low pressure area that trapped over the region. A tropical air mass—unusual in the dry Rocky Mountains—is slowly being hauled across the Front Range by weak southwesterly winds. This is known as an orographic lift, which is converting the incredibly moist air into sheets and sheets of rainfall. |
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FERFAL, if you can, get to a free state in America or, if necessary, Canada. We are more stable than any part of Europe, in more ways than one. I agree 100% and would love to but getting into USA is pretty much impossible unless you have someone hiring you and gets you a work visa. FerFAL Try getting to Canada first. How 'good' a job? What criteria does the employer have to meet? |
| Sorry to hear about this. I went through the same thing in '06. We had 7' of water in our house... It SUCKS. When you get back in, be sure to get EVERYTHING out that got wet. It might seem logical, but a lot of people around me did not get the wet stuff out and ended up with a worse situation with mold. Some houses were condemned. My parents live up on a mountain several hundred feet above any water and still got a wet basement (maybe an inch). The ground was just so saturated it came through the walls. I will echo what the OP said about the churches. Almost all the help we got were from some kind of church group or just people in town that were not affected by the flood. What I learned was to have all my important stuff in easy to get spots. Have a generator. My dad gave me his while the power was out (about 3 days). It saved all our food and we were able to get cleaned up and moved back in almost a full week before anyone on our street. I only herd 1 or 2 other generators running. I chained ours to the porch... Now I have my own gererator and I keep a chain and lock on it so I don't have to go looking for one. Good luck... |
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Man, sorry to hear about that, but a good write up and lots for everyone to consider.
I may be able to shed a little bit of light on the flood insurance questions as I understand it from my experience. Several years ago I did a re-finance on my house. The mortgage company said I was in a 100 year flood plain and needed to get flood insurance before they would refi. So off to my insurance company I go. They look at the location of the house and say I'm NOT in a flood plain we can't insure you against flood I'm like  just sell me flood insurance. They say we can't even if we wanted to. As I learned NO insurance company sells flood insurance. Flood insurance is actually a government program sold through insurance companies. If you do not reside inside a flood plain OR if you do and your local government (city or county) does not participate in the federal flood plan management then you are SOL for flood insurance.
I was between a rock and a hard place home refi. My insurance company even tried Lloyds of London who insures everything. No go. Come to find out the mortgage company was using an old flood plain map and my house was no longer within the flood plain. After a lot of explanation and finally calling the bank president (which my wife knew) they approved the refinance. I still had to sign a waiver for them saying that if a flood did destroy the house I would continue paying  .
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I'm trying to read up on then FEMA flood insurance mess, and get more confused the more I read. it looks like it maybe be based on things your local government did or did not do.
Here's the participation list for Colorado: http://www.fema.gov/cis/CO.html |
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Very interesting ARR... Thank you OP for sharing and I hope and wish you the best!
Drums home how important a quick bug out could be... I think I will be spending some time re-organizing my man cave and putting together a better BO-plan & BOB. Who knows what mother nature has in store for us over the next few years. |
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So was this considered a 100 year flood, 1k year flood? How unprecedented is this? I have family in CO, but down in Westcliffe. The river by me was considered a 450 year flood. (don't ask me how they get that, but that's what I've seen) pretty unprecedented |
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Thanks for posting. I love reading stuff like this. It motivates me to do better. One question, what do you mean about needing more flashlights? I have a few good flashlights and lots of batteries. Is there an important reason to have lots of flashlights? I am genuinely curious if I have missed something important. well, we lost power, most people did. Luckily it was still mostly light out (mid-sept) but imagine this in december, around here it's dark by 5pm plus, you miss some, lose some, drop them in teh crawl space in 3 feet of water and they no longer work (DAMHIK) crawl space is dark, full of water, etc They get lost, batteries out, it's pouring rain, it was dark, This is more for recovery in my case, but if this had happened at night, would have been really bad. |
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What city do you live in? I was in Greeley for it, in Estes park for. Family reunion the week before! Quoted:
What city do you live in? I was in Greeley for it, in Estes park for. Family reunion the week before! longmont Can we use this to pound home the concept that beans, water, documents, commo, pills, and shelter are often more important that guns and ammo? yes, but it won't work. 
OP, did you put on your plate carrier and sling your AR over your back or did you do a press check on your CCW and grab more water? Honest question for all to ponder. uh no, put the AR's in bags and threw (literally) them in the recreational vehicle. Water was not a concern. :-). Actually I had just loaded the RV for my hunting trip, so I had 100+ gallons in the tanks of fresh good water plus 5 cases of bottled. I knew that was covered. |
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Sorry to hear about this. I went through the same thing in '06. We had 7' of water in our house... It SUCKS. When you get back in, be sure to get EVERYTHING out that got wet. It might seem logical, but a lot of people around me did not get the wet stuff out and ended up with a worse situation with mold. k... yep, this is very true. If it's wet, it's pretty much trash, get it out, get it drying or get it in the trash pile. I was literally done and cleaned (minus the yard, which seriously, who cares and the furance in which I"m still waiting) in 4 days. My neighbor across the street (who's an idiot) didn't even remove the carpet from his flooded crawl space til a week went by. bad bad bad. |
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My neighbors oil tank floated and flipped. It was connected with PCV... It stank like fuel oil for weeks. I don't think I had to cut the grass for the rest of the summer. All that oil soaked mud took care of it for me. Our flood happened July 4th weekend in '06, so the heat was tough. My oil burner fired right up once the water was dumped out of the motor. My central air worked fine too. This thread brings back a lot of memories... I feel for you. We had flood insurance and till it was all done, we basically broke even. My wife had a business in the basement and lost a lot... We lost time more than anything. We got $76 from FEMA...
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| You're just up the block from me, if I recall. We got the evac order but the roads were already submerged so we just rode it out. Got real lucky and no damage to us (even though we're not that far from you), just spent two nights walking the creek-turned-river behind the house to make sure we had warning. I'm not wealthy or an insurance adjuster but if I can help, I'm right frigging here. Drop me a line. |
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Years ago I got a GEICO newsletter about a guy who was bugging out from a home in FL with a hurricane en route. He had to leave one vehicle behind so he took a Costco big blue tarp and drove the car onto it, then used bungie cords to tie it shut like a huge birthday present. when he returned he found that the car had floated around in the car port but was largely intact and dry.
I thought of that for furniture and other items in the home.... possible perhaps if the structure is largely intact. We had an appliance flood ruin books and paper - so learned to store stuff in Rubber Maid bins - must have 30 of them now.... Shane taught me a lesson about freezers and fridges - if you can't take stuff, pre-load things in garbage bags and leave in the appliance....if power goes out for days you just open the door and take the sealed rotten stuff out..... Bug out priorities....everyone says photo albums aren't missed until day 3 and then they're a crushing loss.... Might make sense to at least get some flash drive or CD backups to take in the BOB.... Or leave in a water tight zip lock that's left in a water tight bin....that's tied to a tree. Having just moved I realize we have too much stuff.... if we had to haul just the essentials in one load..... |