Last week during a big thunderstorm we got a disturbing call.
I was already awake because the dog is terrified of the thunder and I was trying to calm her down.
When the phone rang around midnight it startled me so much that I screamed. My husband bolted up in bed to see what was wrong. He realized the phone was ringing so answered it. I could only hear him saying “calm down” and that we would be right there. When he hung up, he said that we needed to head over to his mom’s place. She lives alone so whenever there is a problem we go over to help. It turns out that she had a flood in her basement and she was afraid of things getting ruined. When we got there, the power was out, which would explain why the sump pump wouldn’t have drained the water from the basement. I sat with her while my husband went out to star the portable generator. Once it was running the water pumped down and it was safe for my husband to check out the damage. The biggest concern was the HVAC system. The furnace had been surrounded by about 8 inches of water. Not sure if it would be damaged, we called the HVAC company to arrange for someone to come check the system. Lucky for us, it was late summer and my mother-in-law didn’t need the heat to stay warm that night. They came and checked everything out and made sure it was working properly. They did suggest installing a whole house generator that would kick on immediately in the event of another situation like what we just had. We are looking into it.