At some point yesterday, NYSEG (the local utility company) came and turned my gas back on, so I now have heat. Woot!
And it seems weird to be all back to normal, when all around me people have lost everything. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are still out of their homes; hell, some of the homes around here are still full of water, five days after the flood. Local code officials have condemned a lot of homes due to foundation blowouts. Home Depot, which got four feet of water, has the entire contents of its store out in the parking lot this morning; I can't imagine that very much will be salvageable. Oh! And there is a furor over the Petco store; when the waters started to rise, they evacuated their employees, but left the animals behind. Nice one, guys.
And while watching interviews with the flood victims on the news will break your heart, what mystifies me is how person after person says something along the lines of, "We didn't have any warning. We just had to grab some clothes and go."
Didn't have any warning? HELLO. We had days and DAYS of warning. Granted, the rains were heavier than any of the meteorologists had predicted, because the system stalled directly over us, but STILL. They had flood watches for the region posted for at least three days before the rains hit. Unless these people were living in caves, they had PLENTY of warning.
But! I am not going to kick someone while they are down. They should have some volunteer efforts organized by weekend (there are already church groups, the Red Cross, and the National Guard helping out), so I may be shoveling mud out of basements soon. Although God knows I am STILL sore from ripping out T's carpeting and helping L clean out her shed, so it may be a couple of days before I am able to help again.
And peeps? Two words: Flood insurance. I have it. My neighbor T did not. Many of the people who flooded did not. "Too expensive", they said. Oh boy, how expensive is it to replace a house? Sheesh.
Oh! And my lawn is finally starting to dry out, so I may be mowing soon. Rats.
And you know what? I'm still all nervous and jerky, like it's right before the flood instead of right after. I wonder why that is?
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3 comments:
That's the funny thing about insurance. If you have it, it seems to ensure you don't need it. If you don't have it, it seems to ensure that you do need it.
yeah, it's like the pricey service plan I got on with my plumber - never used it.
When I first found out I would need flood insurance (mortgage carrier required it), I bitched, too. Five hundred bucks a year? That's - that's - forty-two bucks a month! Holy cow! And now I am SO GLAD I have it. I'm just trying to spread the word, although God knows it's too late for the poor bastards around here.
And I would like to stress again how extremely thankful I am that I stayed dry. I am a lucky, lucky gal.
and oh yeah, I am aware of the hypocrisy of critisizing people for saying they had no time, when I titled my own evacuation post "grab and go". I did spend a couple of hours at the house that day, packing the car with clothes/supplies/important papers. I picked everything up off the floor that I could and unplugged/disconnected appliances. I could have stayed longer; as it turned out, I wouldn't have had to leave at all. I wasn't one of those poor people scrambling out the door in the middle of the night.
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