Water, water, everywhere!

We got quite a storm last night. Queen Creek got over 2 inches of rain in just a little over two hours. Unfortunately, a lot of it ended up in Brian and Carrie’s house. It seems there was a natural wash that came through the development and should have gone west and behind their house. The developer had blocked it with a wall behind the lot next door to Brian’s house. So water flowed down the mountain, through the development, hit that wall, and turned toward Brian’s property. It overflowed the berm Brian had built up last year after getting water through his property. Because of the amount of rain last night, and the runoff from the mountain and area above them, it flooded them.

About 9:30, Brian had checked his garage because it was raining so hard, and he noticed there were a few inches of water in there. He and Carrie pulled every towel, blanket and rug out of their linen closet and stuffed it at the door from the garage into the house. Within a short time, water had soaked their three foot high pile and was creeping into the house. All their efforts did manage to keep it partially contained to about half the house. It soaked the family room, living room, dining room and part of the playroom.

Outside, there was deep water over the entire property. The pool was totally underwater, and water was rising against the wall on the north side. There was so much flooding, they couldn’t get their cars out, and some of their neighbors were in the same predicament. They called the fire department, who came and evacuated them.

This morning, the water had nearly all subsided. If only it had taken the mess with it! Yuck! Mud everywhere. I have to admit, it looked a lot better in the daylight, and we got to work. Several friends and family were there, neighbors came to help, and by about 10:30, there were at least 15 people pushing mops, shoveling mud, pulling up carpeting and taking loads of laundry to their own homes to wash. Some of Brian’s co-workers brought a Bobcat to scrape the driveway and one neighbor had a power washer he brought over. It’s good to have friends and family!

Surveying the damage, it appears they will need to replace some drywall, baseboards and carpet. No furniture was damaged, and thankfully, they have lots of tiled area that was unscathed (once we got the mud washed off!) The water made it down the hall and into one bathroom, but stopped short of all the carpeted bedrooms.

We don’t know whether there is any structural damage to the house or pool, but hopefully not. It drained off pretty quickly, so that helped. Channel 12 news was on the scene last night just as Brian and Carrie and the kids were leaving. The film crew showed up again this afternoon and shot some footage of the cleanup. It aired at 5:30 this evening, and is also posted online at this site. Click on “Queen Creek residents clean up after storm”. A little explanation: Carrie and Brian’s home was not “ruined” as the reporter says. And Carrie’s quote was taken out of context. She was giving a hypothetical example of their fears last night. They have not lost their home. It’s just some damage, and all fixable. They are thankful it wasn’t worse, and that they had moved several thousand dollars worth of therapy equipment, furniture and supplies from the garage to the school just last week.

I took some pictures today, and posted several on my gallery. I’m exhausted tonight. It’s hard work cleaning up like that. Hopefully, everyone else is getting some rest tonight.

Brian and Carrie were overwhelmed with emotion over the help from family, friends and neighbors today. They both cried as they remembered three years ago when people poured out their hearts and help to make Lauren’s transplant possible.