Scummer

Day 1 after the storm. I have no power since around 10pm monday night. I was able to find a generator at Lowes in Michigan City. Good thing my son is at summer camp down by Lafayette, so we only have to take care of my daughter during those times. About 1.5 feet of water in the basement, flood insurance doesn't cover it. Funny how that works. My cell phone is my only lifeline to the other parts of the world. Water is also supposed to be cooked, the town called to let us know that the drinking water is not safe. Situation sofar under control, neighboiring town declared state of emergency.

Over and out

nvr

Yikes. Sorry to hear about your troubles. That was a pretty crazy storm we had last night. I thought our house was going to shake apart. I did hear that there was a lot of flooding and power outages after the storm. Do you have a backup/battery sump pump? If not, I'd highly recommend getting one. The one I have is supposed to work for 7 days on battery power. It's cheap peace of mind for times like this. Good luck getting everything back in order.

Psimet2001 

Ouch!

Sorry to hear. +1 for the battery backup, but even then battery backups can fail. My parents lost their basement 3 times. Insurance covered them, but then dropped them.

There might be someone around here that might be able to give you a little bit of advice maybe?

aham23

seems we are assuming it the water backed up as a result of a failed sump pump. damage that results from water backing up from a drain, which a sump pump is, is excluded on all homeowners policies. you have to buy the coverage back and/or have the policy endorsed to cover this type of loss. a good agent will just included it in a quote or package and not really bother mentioning its an added endorsement.

insurance carriers do this because this type of loss is frequent, especially in the midwest.

battery backups are good. however, with enough rain and an extended power outage it will only delay the flooding.

good luck Scummer.

later.

Sage23

Dang man . . . sorry to hear about the problems. Looked like one heck of a storm that rolled just south of us Cheeseheads. Glad to hear that everyone is safe (although a bit wet).

spry

What does rain look like?
In northern Ohio we receive several storm warnings,the sky darkens,but no rain.Its getting very dry here folks

As far as sump pumps,install a second basement pump in an opposing corner,2 is better than 1.
There are also home water pressure run pumps available in the event of power failure.
Hound the city officials for more neighborhood retention basins.

ColorChange

Hang in there man.

MadCity Cyclist

Yeah... it sprinkled a bit but that's all I got.

Here in Wisconsin we had bad flooding earlier in the year, but since then it has been dry as a bone.

Scummer

Day 2 after the storm.
My generator in those 2 days now at more gas than my Prius in 2 weeks
Lamp post a block down from my house is still on the ground, blocking 3/4 of the street with a tree on top of it. Power wires are lying across the street and no one wants to touch it because of fear of electrocution.

I should have power by the end of this week. I hope....

Also, the Tornado touchdown over Griffith is now officially confirmed.
Here are some pics:
https://www.nwi.com/tabs/multimedia/080508storms/

DougG

We've had so many outages over the years -- and from my observation it is going to get worse -- that we took the plunge and are having a natural-gas-powered home backup generator installed in a couple of weeks. Yeah, hard to justify the outlay (~$5K), but worth it IMO for general peace of mind.

I managed to borrow a gasoline generator during our last outage in June, and that helped convince me that I didn't want to go that route: heavy to lug around; takes up precious room in the garage; have to check and add oil daily; and still the hassle of going out for gas and refilling it in the rain and mud. My wife and I aren't getting any younger, which added to the incentive for a hands-free, automatic backup.

Torgrot

I feel your pain. I am in Lansing, we haven't taken any water as of yet. I was able to move the food from the freezer to a friends house, thank you Lois and Joe. Streets are passable now. We still don't have power restored. There is a very large tree across the power lines in the alley, and a transformer dripping oil. ComEd promises that all will be well by Friday?

torgrot

SmokinMiles

No advice here...just sympathy. Ugh...nothing worse than water. Hoping you get power back on soon and have help with the cleanup.

Scummer

Day 3 after the storm. Still no power, but NIPSCO is expecting to have power restored by today afternoon. Inner streets look somewhat normal again. Most of the fallen trees have fallen victim to the wood chipper and the lamp post a block down has been removed from the streets.
Yesterday I got my water heater to work again and started taking the circuit boards from my HVAC system apart and cleaning it with some electronic circuit cleaner. I just hope my HVAC system will work again after power comes back on. Otherwise I need to brace myself for a hefty repair bill.

runwithit

this happened in indiana? no mention of it down here in indy. if mitch daniels can get it declared a disaster area from the pres, then you can get some help for the repairs (money wise). hope everything works out for the better.

Scummer

Northwest Indiana, mostly Lake County and Porter County. Also Chicago area got hit as well.

Scummer

Ahh.. finally.. 66 hours without power and nothing but a rumbling generator outside I'm back on the grid. Woohoo!!

SSIndyRider

Flood insurance does actually cover basement flooding, but it doesn't cover personal property in the basement. It should pay to clean it up (debris removal, possibly pump out), plus damage to any house-serving systems like furnace, water heater, electrical panel dry out/replacement, plus washer/dryer and if you have paneling or drywall it will pay to replace the insulation and paneling or the drywall to an unfinished condition (hang it, but not mud or paint it).

Any other contents in the basement, like furniture, tools, (bike trainer) are not covered by the flood policy if in a basement (unless it's a true walkout basement).

As a result of the flooding in June in central Indiana, I've been reading the policy closely, plus I just had to back through a flood insurance course as a refresher. Had some clients have flood claims in our agency and had the crash course reading the policy closely. If you need specific help, PM me and I can send you details. The policy is the same nationwide if it's a true flood policy.

Scummer

It's the flood policy which I need to have since I have a mortgage and live in flood plane. I need to read through it now and see whats covered and what not.

devildogmech

Dude, that stinks! I'm about three blocks south of you (up on the ridge) and we had power back in less than eighteen hours.... Of course the other side of the street didn't get it till the next day. It was amazingly lucky we got our power back when we did.... The freezer was at 34`, the fridge was at 55` and the sump was so close to over flowing that only the surface tension of the water saved my butt! That's why this winter, my project is to install a true drain tile system (now have a dorky - functional - internal french drain) and a second pump and get a small generator to run the pumps and the freezer (I would have cried if we lost all that food!).

If you need any help with the clean up, let me know.

Billy