Owing to Herculean efforts over the past three weeks, she has managed to escape this fate! She had the prudence to put up such things as heating systems and appliances (freezer, hot water heater, etc.) on risers some foot above the basement floor. This helped a lot. But she's still pumping away, with a rotating 12-hour "sentry" at post to ensure the pump is always engaging properly against the need....
I gather that, what with the entire neighborhood pumping out their basements, and the water table so high, the pumped-out water has no place to go, no way to be diverted away from the neighborhood. So it just sits there, waiting to creep back into the neighbors' basements again....
This is a rare occurrence for this town. It's not like it's built in the middle of a recognized flood plain....
It's said, here in Massachusetts, that this was a "200-year flood"....
Anyhoot, I was pretty high and dry on my hill. And being perfectly footloose and fancy free these days, was perfectly content just to stay at home and weather the storm. Alas, that was not possible: I have to visit my elderly parents, who live 15 miles away, on a frequent basis nowadays. With so many local and state roads closed due to flooding, this was no easy business. The few possible detours were killing, resulting in traffic gridlock almost everywhere. (BTW, no police officers that I could see were on hand anywhere to order the resulting vehicular pandemonium.) A 15-mile trip took two hours to execute, one-way.
That was the worst of my suffering. My sister had it worse. And Rhode Island, worst of all. Compared to Rhode Island's sufferings — frank, outright devastation/destruction of property on a massive scale — Massachusetts had it easy.
I'm sort of writing from my "diary" here. So I might as well toss in an anecdote from my diary's "local knowledge" reports.
I say "local knowledge," because as far as I know, nothing about the following has been published in the media — national or even local.
As the story goes, President Obama — at a time when Eastern Massachusetts was in full flood-stage (~10 days ago) — paid an unannounced visit to Framingham, MA, to conduct an inspection of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Authority ("MEMA") headquarters facility located there; and then from hence went on to a fundraiser in nearby Marlborough.
Meanwhile, all the major east–west thoroughfares in the state within a ~25-mile radius and all their tributaries went into instant gridlock. This included the Massachusetts Turnpike, and Route 9 — in this particular region a major commercial venue. Traffic didn't move for hours. And people mainly didn't know why....
If this "local knowledge" is true — and indeed, the news media have not reported it as far as I know — then the main question I have is why President Obama, what with his affinity for grabbing the microphone wherever possible, should show up in a state, some of whose counties were already on the federal disaster list — and not make a big speech.
Then again, there is poor Rhode Island. It seems it would have been easy for the Prez to cop a 'copter out of MEMA for the short hop (~100 miles) to Providence, RI — there to have an opportunity to grab yet another microphone.
But the president was silent, in both cases — MA and RI.
What was that all about?
WOW.
Thanks for the update.
I find that very hard to believe...the silent part.
Then again, there is poor Rhode Island. It seems it would have been easy for the Prez to cop a 'copter out of MEMA for the short hop (~100 miles) to Providence, RI — there to have an opportunity to grab yet another microphone.
But the president was silent, in both cases — MA and RI.
What was that all about?
Two hours to go 15 miles to get your elderly parents' house is mind-boggling. Thank God they were o.k. through all of it.
And I pray all the traffic problems - and your sister's basement flooding - will be resolved very soon.
Thank you "taking us there," dearest sister in Christ!