Water damage comes in different magnitudes; some as subtle as those due to high humidity, others as brief but devastating as one that comes after a flood. Below is an account of the havoc water damage can wreak in just one night.
It was a dark and stormy Saturday evening. The rain had been pouring all day long and there was water all around our area. Electricity was shut off and we only had two oil lamps and some candles to light the house. The roads in our village were not passable so we stayed home the whole day. As my husband peeped through the window he saw the whole garden covered with water. It was flooded!
What we saw were trash floating on the water. We even saw a snake, a few rats and our dog trying to swim to a safe place. We could hear the water splashing against our fence and the walls of our house. It was then that we remembered the basement. Although unfinished, we had used it as a storeroom for some old things. My husband got the flashlight to check on the extent of water damage there. We weren’t prepared for what we saw. The basement was ¾ full of water, and we were helpless.
Two hours after midnight, the rain slowed down and we tried to rest. We felt so weary and so drained, but we couldn’t sleep. At around 7o’clock the following morning the rain stopped and there was no more water in the house; only mud. As we looked outside, the water had gone, but the garden was so muddy and full of trash. The piles of broken hollow blocks and cement were piled up not far from where it was once built as a fence and a wall. We looked around and tried to assess the damages caused by flood.
We went back to our house and started to plan as to what to do first. The water was gone but its furious presence on that fateful night could not be denied. The time had come to face the aftermath of water damage. We started with our mud-filled house. We poured water to soften the mud then swept it. The mud wouldn’t go off easily, and we had to pour more water. We brushed the walls and mopped the floors with powdered detergent soap. We finished it up by brushing with a disinfectant. Mixing water with chlorine bleach proved to be a potent solution to disinfect the entire basement, as well as all other water-damaged items and surfaces. It was a tough job; the smell and mud marks wouldn’t go easily.
The basement was the most expensive to rehabilitate. We had to rent a water pump to extract the water out. Then we had to shovel out the mud and trash that collected inside. Everyone had to wear gloves and boots to prevent water-bourne parasites from making direct contact with the skin. The high humidity, reeking odor, and wetness of it all made the whole activity very laborious. After 5 full days, we finally got the basement back to its original appearance.
