Flooded basement!

So, the girls got home from school yesterday by 3 p.m., and shortly after that a VERY scary storm rolled through. If I was ever going to witness a tornado in my lifetime, I thought for sure that was it. However, no tornado, but the thunderstorms that followed were pretty violent. Our electricity went out immediately, and when it's that violent outside, you pretty much know that it won't be restored quickly. My husband and I started to hand bail the sump pump pit in the basement, because we don't have a generator or a battery back up for the sump pump, and it runs on electricity. After a while, we knew we were fighting a losing battle, but we kept trying up until the end. The basement just started seeping with water along all of the walls. That was it. We should have been moving items up to the main level the whole time, and when the seeping starts, there really isn't time to do too much.

The electricity was restored around 4:30 a.m. this morning, and once the sump pump had time to do its thing, the water level fell fast. However, today is MASSIVE clean up -- big time! We had at least 6 inches of water in the basement. If it was in a cardboard box, and it was on the floor, it will be in the garage can today. A lot of things were on tables, etc., but a lot is going out to the trash can.

Something like this really puts things in perspective. It's all just STUFF! We're fine! Who cares about the stuff? OK, I can take this attitude ONLY because I don't have scrapbooking stuff in the basement. If I did, I would be crying my head off.

I took a few minutes to relax and post this, but now it's back down to the basement for me. School was canceled today, so there are four of us working down there. It's not even 11 a.m., and I'm exhausted! Oh well!