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valis2My sister and I went up north to visit the parental units over the weekend, and we returned quite merry, having stuffed ourselves at Ya-Ya's in Flint on the way.
We pulled out all of the gear and went to walk into the stairwell that leads to my apartment. I live at the ground level. Well, it's half below ground level, six steps down (to be exact), and there are two floors of tenants above me. I've always been scared to death of flooding, honestly. My sister has had two floods occur at different points in her life, and though they weren't horrible-floating-furniture floods, they were still awful to clean up.
So I hear the unmistakable sound of a wet-dry vac, and at the bottom of the stairs I see a giant waterstain in between the two apartment doors (one is mine, the other is my neighbor's).
Also, there is a giant rubbermaid container with rugs sitting next to it.
That's when I think, my apartment has been flooded for two days and I wasn't home, and I nearly had a heart attack.
My apartment is dry. Turns out my neighbor had left the house after starting the clothes washer, and came back four hours later to find her entire apartment soaked. Her neighbor had water damage under the wall into her apartment as well, but I have somehow miraculously escaped it, which makes me want to cry in relief, as my piano and antique bookshelf are on the wall I share with the waterlogged neighbor.
I feel awful for her. Thankfully she has friends over, and family, and the apartment people, and some sort of professional (and very loud) fan, and she has a great attitude. She shrugged and said, "They're just things." I, on the other hand, would have been foaming at the mouth, hysterical, and railing about an uncaring universe.
(I will try to stifle the impulse to mention that my father is completely paranoid about washers and dryers, and has always told me to never leave a domicile while either is running, because I have done it, every so often, and this could just as easily be my horror story.)
We pulled out all of the gear and went to walk into the stairwell that leads to my apartment. I live at the ground level. Well, it's half below ground level, six steps down (to be exact), and there are two floors of tenants above me. I've always been scared to death of flooding, honestly. My sister has had two floods occur at different points in her life, and though they weren't horrible-floating-furniture floods, they were still awful to clean up.
So I hear the unmistakable sound of a wet-dry vac, and at the bottom of the stairs I see a giant waterstain in between the two apartment doors (one is mine, the other is my neighbor's).
Also, there is a giant rubbermaid container with rugs sitting next to it.
That's when I think, my apartment has been flooded for two days and I wasn't home, and I nearly had a heart attack.
My apartment is dry. Turns out my neighbor had left the house after starting the clothes washer, and came back four hours later to find her entire apartment soaked. Her neighbor had water damage under the wall into her apartment as well, but I have somehow miraculously escaped it, which makes me want to cry in relief, as my piano and antique bookshelf are on the wall I share with the waterlogged neighbor.
I feel awful for her. Thankfully she has friends over, and family, and the apartment people, and some sort of professional (and very loud) fan, and she has a great attitude. She shrugged and said, "They're just things." I, on the other hand, would have been foaming at the mouth, hysterical, and railing about an uncaring universe.
(I will try to stifle the impulse to mention that my father is completely paranoid about washers and dryers, and has always told me to never leave a domicile while either is running, because I have done it, every so often, and this could just as easily be my horror story.)
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Date: 2007-01-02 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 01:15 am (UTC)My father actually had a dryer catch on fire before, once. Of course, this was years ago, and I'm certain they're much more safe now, but still, had he not been home, I shudder to think what would have happened.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 02:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 02:30 am (UTC)My neighbor said the washer got stuck on the rinse cycle, and just kept pouring in the water, apparently. How awful is that? *cringes*