I have heard of it happening to other people before, and now it has happened to us. Today our apartment was flooded. In the words of our neighbour and friend who helped us fight the flood, this was the worst she had ever seen.
We were eating breakfast around 8, well the kids and Melody had, I was still waiting for the kettle to boil. Melody called out to me because water was trickling down above our bedroom door. I went to the neighbours above who told me it wasn't them and that they were being flooded too. I went to the 5th floor (we are on the 3rd) but nobody was home. Along with a neighbour we went to the 6th floor, where they told us they were not being flooded.
The next door neighbour on the 5th floor would not open their door and did not want to help. All of our other neighbours were most helpful and co-operative.
What followed was 5-6 hours of mopping up water- well actually I was literally scooping up water with a dustpan. A neighbour friend kindly came and helped us. About an hour into the ordeal plumbers turned the water off, but water kept flowing for hours afterwards. Muliple phone calls were made by neighbours to try to locate the owners of the apartment. Another neighbour got through to the police who explained they have no legal right to enter the apartment.
Our land lady came over about 1 o'clock to inspect the situation. Around 1:30 the people above us told us the water had stopped coming into their apartment. It had stopped coming into our bathroom at that point but was still coming into the bedroom. Four of our rooms were affected and we could see water damage behind the wall paper and even the bathroom tiles.
Our land lady agreed that we did not need to stay any longer and we could clean it up the next day. We hope not too much more water came in after we left. We hope it is not a total disaster when we return tomorrow.
Somebody will come to officially inspect the damage tomorrow and fill out a report. The people responsible (unknown) will need to compensate those affected (four apartments).
We were completely exhausted, even emotionally. It gave me a small appreciation for people who lost their homes in the Queensland floods. It is an emotional experience to think you will lose your home, doubly so for those who do lose it.
I don't know how to categorise this among my catalogue of Russian experiences. Was it a completely negative part of living in Russia? Or was it simply part of life that could have happened in a high rise in Australia? (I think so- just very few live in high rises there.) Or was it a positive experience in the long run because we could count on our neighbour friend for help when we needed it? Right now it is a draining experience that I never want to repeat. But I have to hope it is some how character building.....
(I meant to take photos, but couldn't think straight when we packed our bags. We are staying the night at Australian friends who live here. I will try to take photos tomorrow.)
We were eating breakfast around 8, well the kids and Melody had, I was still waiting for the kettle to boil. Melody called out to me because water was trickling down above our bedroom door. I went to the neighbours above who told me it wasn't them and that they were being flooded too. I went to the 5th floor (we are on the 3rd) but nobody was home. Along with a neighbour we went to the 6th floor, where they told us they were not being flooded.
The next door neighbour on the 5th floor would not open their door and did not want to help. All of our other neighbours were most helpful and co-operative.
What followed was 5-6 hours of mopping up water- well actually I was literally scooping up water with a dustpan. A neighbour friend kindly came and helped us. About an hour into the ordeal plumbers turned the water off, but water kept flowing for hours afterwards. Muliple phone calls were made by neighbours to try to locate the owners of the apartment. Another neighbour got through to the police who explained they have no legal right to enter the apartment.
Our land lady came over about 1 o'clock to inspect the situation. Around 1:30 the people above us told us the water had stopped coming into their apartment. It had stopped coming into our bathroom at that point but was still coming into the bedroom. Four of our rooms were affected and we could see water damage behind the wall paper and even the bathroom tiles.
Our land lady agreed that we did not need to stay any longer and we could clean it up the next day. We hope not too much more water came in after we left. We hope it is not a total disaster when we return tomorrow.
Somebody will come to officially inspect the damage tomorrow and fill out a report. The people responsible (unknown) will need to compensate those affected (four apartments).
We were completely exhausted, even emotionally. It gave me a small appreciation for people who lost their homes in the Queensland floods. It is an emotional experience to think you will lose your home, doubly so for those who do lose it.
I don't know how to categorise this among my catalogue of Russian experiences. Was it a completely negative part of living in Russia? Or was it simply part of life that could have happened in a high rise in Australia? (I think so- just very few live in high rises there.) Or was it a positive experience in the long run because we could count on our neighbour friend for help when we needed it? Right now it is a draining experience that I never want to repeat. But I have to hope it is some how character building.....
(I meant to take photos, but couldn't think straight when we packed our bags. We are staying the night at Australian friends who live here. I will try to take photos tomorrow.)
1 comment:
A difficult job cleaning up so much water.We hope you can soon return to a normal life in your apartment.
Post a Comment