Stupid Fucking White Man

The Rhode Island Floods of 2010

Hardest hit:

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How bad was the flooding?

It killed the Easter bunnies.  Four of them.  And hundreds of other pets.  But no people died, thank goodness.

We experienced some problems with our septic already this month due to the excessive rainfall.  Several hours with a wet vac and cleaning supplies in the basement addressed the leak on our 6 day old, newly installed carpets.  That was barely a week ago.   

Monday night we went to bed around 11am and it rained again.  But we prepared for it. It was dry as a bone.  I had a large bucket ready for any leaks coming out of the septic drain if the worst case (predicted 2-5 inches of rain in this storm) happened.   I had set up extra pipes for all the downspouts to channel the water away from the house.

The 5 inches would have been bad.  We would have had some water leaks.  At 3am my wife woke up smelling the septic backup from upstairs.  This was not a good sign. 

This was the part of the storm that sent us into the 200 year record marks.   We got something around 8 inches of rain on top of totally saturated grounds and full swimming pools and backed up septic system.   I had ran the pool pump at a slow trickle for 2 days previous and it filled back up in minutes.   

On top of the septic backup we found 2 hugely shocking discoveries that placed us from "flood mitigation" into full scale emergency.

• Pools of water forming on the opposite side of the basement where the waterfalls we had not seen yet were accumulating into the opposite end of the house from where the runoff was entering.
• The sump pump had been overcome.   In horror we pulled back the furnace room doors to find several inches of water building behind the sump pump well and soaking unhung picture frames and boxes of books that had yet to be unpacked since we bought the house at the end of last summer.

We started getting shocked by the wet vac as we operated it in standing water in nothing but our PJ's and bare feet at 3:30am.  At that point we started calling all the emergency phone numbers on our fridge we could.   Luckily we were up before most anyone so we got a plumber to come help us bolster the sump pump.   He also confirmed that our pool was overflowing and we had to pump it out or the waterfalls would continue into the basement.  At first they would not pump it because of environmental issues with the pool chemicals.  Thankfully the guy said to hell with the laws and pumped out our pool into the street for us or we'd have been buried by water.

The next 4 hours went by in a blur.   We continued monitoring the septic overflow and tried to contact the water damage companies at 8am to get help with clean up and drying out the new carpets which are still sitting on my wife's credit card unpaid - but completely ruined at this point today.

 Shortly after this the rain came down hard again.  And the thousands of gallons of water that had been pumped out came flooding right back into the backyard, the pool, and again into our basement and garage.   After a quick, futile search at the local hardware stores for any kind of backup pump, I returned with the only option available to us.  We had to break open the pool pump from the garage and break the winterization and run out the pump into the street manually.  In retrospect we should have done this long before this storm, but with everything going on I never thought that I would have to open up the pool like that.




Cleanup will take time



This is a video from a week before this recent flood.
I used to work with the guy in the green hoody in this video:

"I feel like I was run over by a truck right now"

I said the same thing to my wife more than once the last few days. Almost the exact same words, because my body really felt like I'd been run over.


We stayed on top of the cleanup all day long.  We couldn't shower, use the toilet, clean any of the 10 pairs of clothes that we soaked, or the 25 towels drenched.   So we just did clean up and kept emptying the buckets.  Then around 7pm a septic pumping truck came by to bail us out.  They pumped out our entire septic tank nearly with 1,000 gallons - the most the little port-a-potty truck could carry.  Within 30 minutes the septic tank filled back up again.

Exhausted and sick with stress, my wife went to bed around 9pm.   She didn't sleep long.  I tried to stay up to monitor and mitigate the floods as heavy rain continued.  But even during the exciting URI vs UNC men's NCAA basketball NIT tournament game I drifted to sleep around 11pm.  3hours of sleep just wasn't enough to pull an all-nighter.

We had alarms going off every 30 minutes to change out the buckets however.  In the first round I miscalculated and the septic bucket had overflowed and in my haste I spilled large amounts on the carpet as I scrambled to pull it out from behind the washing machine.  This continued until around 6am when we finally slept a solid hour without getting up.  The bucket finally stopped getting water.

It was a horrible nightmare that wouldn't end.  We had two nights with hardly 5 hours of continuous sleep and still waiting for a cleanup service.  The service never came.  They were too busy helping people pump out water.   Our wet basement wasn't nearly as devastating as those having standing water.   So it looks like the $3,000 new carpets are goners.  The other $1k spent on mitigation hopefully gets covered by insurance.  But we'll have to wait and see what the insurance adjuster dude says.

/http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/historic_flooding/article/video_warwick_mall_aerials/34187

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Blizzard December 2009

We got buried by an early season snow storm last Saturday night. I had 2 Christmas parties canceled that day. We were kind of bummed that the snow did not really start coming down until 9pm, which would have given plenty of time for both parties. But then the next morning we realized why everyone was so careful.



The peacock is safe! Peacock finds permanent home

Our place got slammed by about a foot and a half of snow, but it drifted up to 5 feet in places of our yard. The pool is still buried in feet of snow and I will likely take that job on Christmas Day morning.

You should be able to get higher res photos by clicking on any of these.

another palindrome attack

Wait it's "Hanna" not "HannaH"... oops.

HANNA WATCH/WARNING BREAKPOINTS/INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 38A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL082008
800 AM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008

.TROPICAL STORM HANNA
800 AM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008
CAPE-FEAR-NC 33.85N 77.97W
MERRIMACK-RIVER-MA 42.84N 70.82W
FLOOD WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
724 AM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008

...HANNA EXPECTED TO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL OVER SOUTHERN
NEW ENGLAND THIS WEEKEND...

HARTFORD CT-TOLLAND CT-WINDHAM CT-WESTERN FRANKLIN MA-
EASTERN FRANKLIN MA-NORTHERN WORCESTER MA-CENTRAL MIDDLESEX MA-
WESTERN ESSEX MA-EASTERN ESSEX MA-WESTERN HAMPSHIRE MA-
WESTERN HAMPDEN MA-EASTERN HAMPSHIRE MA-EASTERN HAMPDEN MA-
SOUTHERN WORCESTER MA-WESTERN NORFOLK MA-SOUTHEAST MIDDLESEX MA-
SUFFOLK MA-EASTERN NORFOLK MA-NORTHERN BRISTOL MA-
WESTERN PLYMOUTH MA-EASTERN PLYMOUTH MA-SOUTHERN BRISTOL MA-
SOUTHERN PLYMOUTH MA-BARNSTABLE MA-DUKES MA-NANTUCKET MA-
NORTHERN MIDDLESEX MA-CHESHIRE NH-EASTERN HILLSBOROUGH NH-
WESTERN AND CENTRAL HILLSBOROUGH NH-NORTHWEST PROVIDENCE RI-
SOUTHEAST PROVIDENCE RI-WESTERN KENT RI-EASTERN KENT RI-
BRISTOL RI-WASHINGTON RI-NEWPORT RI-BLOCK ISLAND RI-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...HARTFORD...WINDSOR LOCKS...UNION...
VERNON...PUTNAM...WILLIMANTIC...CHARLEMONT...GREENFIELD...
ORANGE...BARRE...FITCHBURG...FRAMINGHAM...LOWELL...LAWRENCE...
GLOUCESTER...CHESTERFIELD...BLANDFORD...AMHERST...NORTHAMPTON...
SPRINGFIELD...MILFORD...WORCESTER...FOXBORO...NORWOOD...
CAMBRIDGE...BOSTON...QUINCY...TAUNTON...BROCKTON...PLYMOUTH...
FALL RIVER...NEW BEDFORD...MATTAPOISETT...CHATHAM...FALMOUTH...
PROVINCETOWN...VINEYARD HAVEN...NANTUCKET...AYER...JAFFREY...
KEENE...MANCHESTER...NASHUA...PETERBOROUGH...WEARE...FOSTER...
SMITHFIELD...PROVIDENCE...WEST GREENWICH...WARWICK...BRISTOL...
NARRAGANSETT...WESTERLY...NEWPORT...BLOCK ISLAND
724 AM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING...


* TROPICAL MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH HANNA WILL BRING PERIODS OF HEAVY
RAIN DURING THIS WEEKEND...WHICH COULD PRODUCE FLASH FLOODING. THE
FIRST ROUND OF SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL HAS ALMOST MOVED OUT OF
SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND AFTER DUMPING ANYWHERE FROM HALF AN INCH TO
TWO INCHES OF RAIN. A SECOND ROUND OF HEAVY RAIN IS ANTICIPATED
THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY MORNING AS HANNA APPROACHES
AND MOVES ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS MAY DEVELOP THAT LEAD
TO FLASH FLOODING. MUCH OF THIS RAIN IS EXPECTED TO FALL DURING
THE NIGHTTIME. BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER
TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLASH FLOODS.

DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE
ROADWAY.

FOR SAFETYS SAKE...STAY AWAY FROM STREAMS AND OPENINGS TO
DRAINAGE PIPES. SWIFTLY MOVING WATERS CAN QUICKLY PULL A PERSON
UNDER WATER...CREATING A LIFE THREATENING SITUATION.

YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION
SHOULD FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS BE ISSUED.

Storsjoe or Great Lake monster

Swedish Nessie captured

The fact is that The Great Lake Monster show itself at the most inhabited places of the lake. An explanation for this could be that few people detain themselves on these deeper, bigger areas of the lake.The Monster has showed it self during the warmest months of the year. However, there are observations at fall and all the way until December.

get the facts

the professor who called snowflake

Currently I am on a work-instigated training trip in North-Central Massachusetts. We are located in a purgatory realm of over-burgeoned suburbia, with all the congestion frustrations of the big city and none of the benefits of readily available entertainment and sustenance. However, there is a Whole Foods nearby and the hotel I'd been staying previously had a bar 15 feet from my the entrance to my room.

The snow started falling hard at 1pm here btwn Bellerica and Bedford, MA at the ICS training center. It has let up slightly 7 hours later at 8pm. But so many of us are stranded. I've heard stories on TV of 2.5 hour delays for traveling a distance of 5 miles in Boston.



I've had to take shelter in a hotel across the street rather than try to journey the meager 10 miles down the road to the original hotel, where my clothes and other assorted accouterments lie waiting in an empty room.

"Hand to hand combat there for milk and bread - what's wrong with these idiots."


Essentially everyone was worried about the snowfall, hit the streets right as the storm peaked, and then people just flooded the roads in mindless succession. Our teacher decided to hold the class until mid-afternoon rather than breaking at lunch to elude the ensuing clusterfuck. I've heard the interstates are closed in Southern New England and the ones that are open are the veritable parking lot. If I am in a parking lot I don't want my motor running though.

discuss your commute

I'm glad we are sitting here without a car or our clothes. We don't need it tonight. You just dig in. It's hard to say how this can be prevented. There's just too many people on the roads to begin with. When we all descend on them simultaneously the system breaks down. Add an army of severe storm vehicles to reach apotheosis.

And now let's hear from our viewers:

Heavy snow brings traffic to halt