It's been a strange spring. And when I say that, it's a total understatement. We had SNOW on April 20th. Kid you not. Might not have been enough to accumulate, but there was definitely a layer of snowy frost on the windshield that morning.
Evidence:
Yet, the few days before we were completely inundated with rain. 9+ inches in certain areas in 24 hours. I knew areas around us were getting flooded but felt confident that we would be okay. Our sump pump was replaced 2 years ago when it broke (and our newly finished basement completely flooded) AND we bought a battery backup.
We learned our sump pump had been running for almost 12 hours straight with no break. Given the volume of rain, the pump just couldn't continue to keep up. I also learned that when the pump ejects the water outside, the pipe it flows through is supposed to feed the water into another pipe that drains the water to the edge of the property. The two pipes don't have a flush connection and the water was just spewing all around the pipe. It was causing it to pool in that area right around the foundation of the house and was creating the issue with the sump working constantly.
The rain didn't phase me. I knew getting into work would be a bit of a nightmare with my 35 mile commute, but I was willing to do it. I agreed to drop Tenley off that morning so Dave could run to the hardware store and fix the drain issue and make sure the water was flowing away from the foundation.
It didn't really go down that way.
I was on my way to take Tenley to the sitter around 6:30. Talking on the phone to my brother about how bad the rain was. Paying attention to the road and listening to him telling me that Mom had called and told us we should just stay home and avoid it all. Roads were closed down, flooding everywhere. No sooner than he says this I end up driving through a 3 foot pool of water I didn't see. It was fairly dark out still since it was so gloomy and the road looked like glass since the rain had let up a little. The pool of water was located in a dip in the road and looked like wet concrete. I was only doing about 35mph, but didn't realize until I was just about in the water that I was going through it. I hit my brakes but realized it wouldn't make a difference so just braced myself for the worst. I hydroplaned a bit but fortunately there were no other cars on the road and I was able to get the car back in control. That's when I realized it wasn't okay. Sitting at the red light I heard LOUD knocking coming from somewhere in my car. I had no clue if I had water in my engine or what. At that point I knew I wouldn't be making it into work. I decided to continue on and drop Tenley at the sitter so I could call the mechanic and get my car fixed. Our mechanic was fantastic. They arranged for a tow (which was fortunately covered by insurance!) and fixed my car within 4 hours.
FORTUNATELY, there was no water damage to my engine. Praise the Lord! The force of the water on impact had torn off the exhaust shield under the car and it was banging against the under body of the vehicle. I'll tell you what. The banging sound was so loud that when I was on the phone with Dave after it happened, I could barely hear him talking to me.
Dave ended up staying home to keep an eye on the sump pump and try to keep the basement from flooding so I ended up being home with him. It was a pretty stressful day.
Retention pond in our backyard; fortunately didn't overflow into our yard.
The huge tube we had to hook up to prevent flooding. You can see water pooled in one area below.
The backyard was a swampy mess.
Leaving our neighborhood later to go pick up my car
The path we go walking on completely under water
I took this road earlier that day to drop Tenley at the sitter (no this was not the pool of water I drove through). Someone ended up getting flooded.
All things considered, it could have been worse. My car ended up being okay; we were able to fix the sump pump drainage issue; and all of us are safe.
I'm continuing to pray that spring will make its appearance.
Before summer gets here.
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