Progress after The Flood

With very few exceptions we have been out at the lake every day, working on the enormous task of cleaning up.  It's amazing how many things a flood can wreck, ruin, mess up, damage, float away, drown, and displace.  

Progress so far:  a lot of the dreadful, 'Dirty Jobs' tasks are complete.  Walls and floors are scrubbed and sanitized.  All salvageable patio furniture has been scrubbed, shampooed, dried in the sun.  The woodpile, which had floated away, has been retrieved log by log and put where it belongs.  Tons of sticks, twigs, leaves--raked and burned, or stacked with the woodpile.

A neighbor who runs a sawmill came for the giant cypress snag; he sawed it in half and dragged it away behind his four-wheeler.  The propane company came and rescued the upended tank.  For some jobs, we hired help.  Carpet, padding, buckled flooring--removed.  Wet insulation under floor and in walls--removed and bagged.  The contaminated ductwork under the house will be replaced tomorrow.

The small bedroom's  flooring is gone, revealing a non-standard system of beams.  Safe enough, but not a good underpinning for tile.  We'll use vinyl tile and put an area rug in place.  The lower 18" of drywall will have to be cut out and discarded, so we will replace that with beadboard wainscoting--something scrubbable.  Did  you know they have polystyrene molding and trim nowadays?

The sunroom is a different place (thank heavens.)  We will use an epoxy coating on the concrete--waterproof, nonskid, scrubbable.  The new airconditioner had been installed just a week before the flood; it was undamaged.  Thanks to cool weather and the a/c, we did not have to battle mold.  

The displaced sunroom furnishings are piled in the main room of the house.  Interesting decorator touch, no?

The DHubby has already made one trip to the landfill with a trailer-load of ruined stuff.  These giant contractor bags are filled with the wet insulation from the crawlspace.  

Ready for transport!

Not everyone believes in hauling stuff to the landfill.  Our elderly neighbor has a huge burn pile.  It may include some things that should not be burned in the open air.  Old ways die hard.

Being underwater for a week did not faze this rose.

Note the lush vegetation, which LOVED the flood conditions.

Lake Conway looks so innocent, does it not?  On the night of April 30/May 1st, after rainfall in excess of 7 inches, the lake rose 5.45 feet above its normal level--a 500-year flood that was not preventable by any means.  The ground was already saturated and rivers and streams above flood stage; there was no place for the water to go.....except places where it had never gone before.