Placo's Flood

On a down note, this weekend there were some huge storms in our hometown and there was some crazy water coming down! My in-laws live in a beautiful 10 year old home with a huge finished basement so we've been storing our stuff in there. When I moved down here to get married all my journals and albums came with me and went down there; after we got married a lot of our wedding mementos (guest book, tiara, gloves etc) along with wedding albums and some unopened gifts; and then after Noah grew out of the infant stage - all his pack'n'plays and cradle swing and exersaucers and teething toys and rattles and stuffed animals... all this stuff went in the my in-laws basement. Right along with some scrapbooks and journals of mine that are a little more recent. After the huge storm this weekend my in-laws had about one to two feet of water in their basement. The city storm sewers backed up and the sump pump wasn't working because more water was coming in then it could pump out. Most of these items I listed - soaked. All with the exception of most of the albums and the journals.  Only one jounal and one album was damaged...

We called their insurance company and the city. When we called about 10 hours after the storm there was over 80 claims already submitted due to the same storm. They told us there may be a wait until they get someone out to us.

Yesterday morning the adjuster came by with a moving crew, cleaning crew and a ton of water damage restoration equipment. I went in to work and tried not to think of it. At 10 am hubbie called me at work asking if there is any possibility of letting my work know that I have an emergency personal matter to attend to and to boogie on over to my in-laws. The adjuster was going to have the crew go through all the stuff and lugging all the stuff out that needs to be tossed and replaced. We had to make some decision. What was to be "cleaned" and was going to be "replaced". Nate mentioned "Noah's teddy bears" and I just lost it. I started crying at work and said I had to go and attend to this emergency.

So I sped over to my in-laws and tried to keep my composure as they lugged out the dripping excersaucer and the pack'n'play. We took pictures and wrote them all down with dollar mounts. But how do I put a dollar amount on Noah's first discoveries that happened while playing with those items? Sure they are just items and they are replaceable, but there is so much work to be done now and we were so all set for this next baby. Now it's square one again. And my other concern is whether this will be settled within the next 2 months - before the baby. 

[sigh]

Hubbie has been great and supportive and encouraging.  He's reminding me to look on the bright side - new stuff for the baby, up-to-date on all the new safety features and totally clean.  So that is true.  And this way my in-laws had lots of help cleaning out their basement and getting rid of all the old couches and the rugs and the junk that usually accumulates in one's basement.  They didn't really lose anything of value at all.  Everything down there is replaceable and their "superior" INS coverage will cover it all.  So that is great.  Right?  It's too bad, but there is a silver lining.  A blessing in disguise.