If you saw the Today Show yesterday or any major news network, you probably heard stories about the record breaking flooding in Rhode Island. Towns across the state are under water. Roads and schools are closed, houses are evacuated, belongings are floating in basements.
It’s bad. One local river is supposed to reach 20 feet above flood stage by the time all is said and done. TWENTY FEET.
We live on a river, and woke up this morning to find the river in our yard. Most of our yard.
(The water is about halfway up this gate, and comes up to about my mid thigh. IN our yard.)
A quick look confirmed what we expected…our basement was flooded. Fun! Since this has never happened to our house before, we weren’t prepared and did not have a pump. Unfortunately, you couldn’t find or buy a pump in the state to save your life today. After a little bit of panic, we figured out some people we could call to beg, beg, beg for theirs, and luckily, they came through.
Hours and hours of pumping later…it’s still filling up. We’re fortunate to not be in the part of the state that’s under evacuation, but it’s sure not pretty.
We’ve become something of a neighborhood side show, as people have literally been parking in front of our house to see what it looks like to have a river run through your yard. We’ve even had people ask if they can take pictures!
All and all, a major pain. Kodiak agrees — he does not like having half a yard.
22 comments
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March 31, 2010 at 8:19 am
jen
perhaps you will be taking out the boat early this year!! you all are in my thoughts!!
March 31, 2010 at 8:25 am
Phoebe
yikes! Hope you guys (and your house) stay safe through all of this!
March 31, 2010 at 8:41 am
collcamp
I’ve been reading you for a while, mostly lurking, very few comments — but I never knew you lived in RI. I’m up in MA, but close to the RI border and dealing with a very similar problem. We moved into our house just four weeks ago — and now our backyard is a pond (ducks included) and our basement had a foot and a half of water in it — thankfully we got pumps from the last time it rained like this, but we attempted to go to Home Depot (along with the rest of the state) for more hoses, and it was insane. They were sold out of everything. Long story short – I feel your pain – good luck with everything!
March 31, 2010 at 9:21 am
Rachel
Oh no!! That’s unreal! Good luck un-flooding yourselves. On another note, Kodiak is a cutie pie — is he a Newfie?
March 31, 2010 at 9:22 am
Amber
Girl, this stinks! I hope that the water clears sooner than later and no damage is done to your house. We just bought a house along the river but luckily we’re hillside. I feel sorry for the beautiful houses that sit below us, though. Hope you won’t have to evacuate — Good luck!
March 31, 2010 at 9:29 am
Marie
Ooh, that’s zero fun! Hope it doesn’t get too much worse. Cuties like Kodiak need their yards!
March 31, 2010 at 9:37 am
Life of a Doctor's Wife
Oh no! How awful!
Glad you guys got a pump – hopefully you can keep on top of the flooding. Thinking about you guys.
March 31, 2010 at 9:51 am
Tiffany
Oh my gosh! That’s so crazy! I hope you can get your basement dry and there’s not alot of damage. Rain, rain go AWAY!
March 31, 2010 at 9:58 am
stealthnerd
Oh my gosh, that’s terrible. Hang in there and I hope the water goes down soon!
March 31, 2010 at 10:19 am
LLewis
I have been a lurker on here for a bit, after a recommendation from a friend-as I am 22 weeks pregnant! Good luck with the flooding, we have a lot of friends dealing with the same situation here in RI. We are in Western Cranston, so we were fortunate, as we are set up high and haven’t had any problems. We did get to watch the babbling brook behind our house become 4 times higher than normal and cause RAPIDS though….pretty crazy!
Good luck!
March 31, 2010 at 10:25 am
Wiz
Oh my goodness! I hope the flooding goes down soon. So sorry about your basement. Love the picture of Kodiak though. What a big precious dog!
March 31, 2010 at 10:34 am
kalen
wow – i’ve never seen anything like that! insane!!! stay safe & good luck w/ the basement – they usually do pretty well with flooding/wetness since they’re kinda built to handle it, but still, i’ll be thinking of you all!
March 31, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Kate
Same thing is happening here in MA. My in-laws have water bubbling up from the floor of their basement—not cool! I hope you guys dry out soon.
March 31, 2010 at 1:36 pm
your mom
glad you moved those daffodils last week! 🙂
March 31, 2010 at 2:19 pm
bing
Oh man, so sorry to hear about your basement! What a pain. Hopefully it didn’t cause you guys too much damage!
March 31, 2010 at 9:22 pm
KT
We have been safe so far in this part of MA but I am quite sick of the rain. I hope your yard becomes a full yard again- and soon!
April 1, 2010 at 6:01 am
linnie
It seems like extreme weather is everywhere right now. I live in Australia and last week, after four months of no rain, we had six inches in two hours, due to a very unusual storm. Luckily, my house is on a hill and there was only a small corner of the roof ripped up (and windows broken by huge hailstones) but it was so very strange driving home from work and seeing people rescuing other motorists from their stranded FLOATING cars by kayak!
Good luck with that future mouldy/rotting smell that always turns up when the water level drops.
April 1, 2010 at 8:25 am
Anastasia
Greetings from Northern MA!!! We are having issues as well! We’ve managed to keep the water out of the basement with our pump, but now we’re having issues with the town sewer line backing into our house. Raw sewage in my bathtub is not fun!!! To make matters worse we lost power this morning……wake me when this is over!!
Thinking of you 🙂 Be safe momma!!!
April 1, 2010 at 10:04 am
Jen
I am so sorry to hear that! I really hope that your home has minimal, if any, damage. What a thing to have to deal with in your last trimester especially. Thinking of you!
April 1, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Kaci
Oh my gosh! That’s terrible! I can totally sympathize – my town flooded when I was younger and we had three feet of water in our basement, as well as a basement full of a ruined bedroom and laundry room.
Hope it all turns out okay for you!
April 1, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Rose
I’m so sorry to hear Molly, I hope it all resolves very soon. I’m praying for sunshine and dry weather for you!! Take cares…
April 2, 2010 at 12:04 am
Jessica
Holy cow. I did see this on the TODAY show but had no idea it was really that bad. I’m hoping the rain is done soon! I have to Facebook my cousin to make sure she’s okay too.