Water-blogged

Well ... I am glad that this did not happen 3 months ago or I may not have been quite as calm as I am.  In the early hours of Tuesday our high rise condo building suffered a major flood.  There was a break in the water line to the fan coil unit in a residence on the 8th floor.  The unit residents were away at the time.  The resulting flood was significant and every floor from the 8th floor down through both levels of parking garage was affected.  The units ending in 05, 06, 07 were the only ones on each floor affected, but they were hit hard.  We live in a unit that ends in 07.

At 5:45 yesterday morning our 4-year new building experienced a rare fire alarm.  Security came onto the loud speaker a few minutes into the alarm to advise that there was a "flooding situation" on the 8th floor.  About 10 minutes later the fire department spoke over the intercom to advise that there was no fire and there was no need to evacuate.

At this time I looked into the hallway and saw water coming into our common hallway from each of the three elevator shafts.  The carpets in the hallway were quite wet and there was a definite sound of running water. Through a friend, I was advised that at that same time on the 7th floor water was literally gushing out of the 06 unit there.

I panicked when I saw the water and heard about the flood.  All I could think about were all of Aziza's things and the special memories that they held.  As a family we worked hard to get as many of Aziza's special items secured in rubber bins as fast as possible.  I also gathered all of my photo hard drives and computer and put them in the bins.  I was so afraid that I could lose my photos of my beautiful baby girl.

Once I had done that, I went back to bed.  I got up about an hour later to shower and as I was in the shower I looked up at the bathroom ceiling and much to my horror it had started to show signs of bubbling.  At almost that exact same time, I shut the water off so I could hear yet another announcement that was being made.  This announcement stated that there was now what was considered a major flood in the building, originating on the 8th floor.  We were advised that there was no elevator service (water had been pouring through the shafts from the 8th floor).  There was no heat.  The fire department was still on scene.  Water in some of the hallways was ankle deep or more.  This water escaped where it could - down the elevator shafts, into the walls, into the floors.

Right around that time our building was descended upon by all sorts of contractors to get the situation under control.  They started with evacuating the water, and our home was filled with the sounds of water vacuums outside my door. 

Later that day a sign was posted that identified the 24 affected units.  Our unit appeared on that list - despite that fact that by this time my ceiling looked back to normal and not a drop of water had fallen in our unit.  All of the units ending in 06 were completely destroyed from the 8th floor down, including the unit directly beside me.  The unit directly above me was also hit hard.  Each of the 24 units had a service plan notice posted by their doorways ... all except mine which seemed to escape damage.  I could not believe that of all of the 24 posted units ours seemed to be the only one unaffected.  I went to bed last night thinking that we had a special little angel watching out for us.

Today my unit was inspected by the contractors and they determined that I have moisture sitting in my bathroom ceiling from the flood.  They are planning to come in and cut away part of the bathroom the ceiling.  They will then set up an air mover that will need to run 24 hours a day for almost the next week.  Some units have many of these blowers already.  There are also machines in the common hallways to get rid of as much moisture as possible.  Mold is a major concern.

We continue to be without heat.  A lot of work was put forth to get the service elevator up and running.  It is the only elevator service to the entire building at this point.  There are long waits to get on, and it is shared with contractors hauling destroyed flooring etc out of the units.  The baseboards have been removed from the common hallways and from almost all of the affected units.  There are pieces/plaster falling from the ceilings in the common hallways and I am sure in most of the affected units.  The wallpaper in the common hallways is curled part way up the walls.  Residents who were not on the affected list, but whose units are beside the elevator are without electrical in part of their units.

It is impossible to understand how we were so minimally affected in comparison to all of the other 05,06,07 units.  None of our belongings were damaged.  I honestly believe that a little angel must have known that I could not mentally handle too much more at this time. A little angel named Aziza.