Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with flooding

How do I deal with repeat flooding in my Toyota Matrix?

Librarygeek — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:22:03 -0800

Help -- my Toyota Matrix is flooding in behind my passenger seat. What should I check? What are the reccomendations of the hive mind? Details below. Last weekend, I noticed that there was water behind and under my pasenger seat, seeping forward. There were water bottles back there, so I thought one must have leaked and cleared them out and dried out the mess. Whenever I was in the car and it was not raining I opened the windows to try to dry out the mustiness.
Fast forward to this weekend. Lo and behold there is a puddle of water behind my passener seat again. It has been raining all week and I have been religious about keeping the windows closed. There is no sloshing in the doors. No apparent holes in the roof. Where could this water be coming from? Is there a way to figure out if there is a hole in the undercarriage without getting under there?
We are expecting more rain this week and I fully plan to check everyday now that I know this was not just an issue with a stray water bottle!

How to make Gas company pay for water damage they caused?

sirhensley — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:57:53 -0800

The Gas Company installed a new meter this week and broke my sprinkler line. My house and garage are now slightly flooded and laminate flooring that was just installed 1 month ago is ruined. How to I make the Gas Co. pay for the repairs? Three or four days ago the Southern California Gas Company installed a new gas meter at my house while we were not home. This evening I noticed that my dining room floor and garage were flooded with water right around the area of the gas meter. Upon inspection of the area outside by the gas meter I can see that a sprinkler (which is about 1 foot away from the gas meter) has been completely broken off the water line. It appears that this has let a high flow of water fill up in the planter and leak into the house and garage.

Can someone please help me follow the proper steps to ensure the Gas Company takes responsibility for this and handles cleanup & repair costs? I have few items in the garage that have been ruined, but more importantly we just installed laminate flooring in the dining room a month ago and it is also ruined now.

Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated to handle this right away.

Thanks.

Am I getting ripped off by the water restoration company and the environmental consultant?

amanlikeme — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:38:55 -0800

Am I getting ripped off by the water restoration company and the environmental consultant? My basement flooded last week due to a backed up drain and a lot of rainfall. About 1/2 an inch to an inch of water completely covered the carpeted floor of my finished basement before an emergency plumbing service arrived to snake the drain. I have two drains in my basement, and both overflowed. One clearly contained sewage. The other appeared to overflow with rain water. My wife runs a licensed daycare out of the home, so we wanted a professional to come out and inspect the basement to find out if anything was dangerously contaminated by the flooding. The environmental consultant charged $80 per testing swab. He swabbed three areas ($240 total): both drains and the center of the kids play area. The test results for the play area and one drain came back okay. The area around the other drain came back with dangerous levels of e. coli. I was told that an e. coli level over 200 is dangerous, and that my basement had a reading of 600.

The consultant referred us to a restoration company, which gave us a quote of $3,000 to remove anything that came into contact with the water (carpet, furniture, wall panels, etc.), disinfect, and deodorize. I was told anything made of wood needs to be trashed (bookshelves, desk, bar, tables, chairs, etc.). I will also have to pay to have the consultant come back to re-test so that we can issue the daycare parents a written "all clear" notice. Am I getting ripped off? Can any of my stuff be saved? Can I do the restoration myself? I have already spent hundreds of dollars, and my homeowners policy will not cover the cost of the restoration, so any frugal (but safe) advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

San Francisco Storms

mto — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:39:38 -0800

Should I be scared of these 3 big storms about to slam into San Francisco? The news has been going on and on about these storms. The city is giving away sandbags. They're mentioning hurricane force winds. It's freaking me out. How scared should I be? You can see about where I live in my user profile.

I bought a bunch of food I can make w/ my camping stove and some extra water. Should I be doing anything more to prepare? Is my neighborhood likely to flood? (Bernal Heights)?

Also, and most importantly, how likely are these storms to produce a tornado? I hate tornados, I left the midwest thinking I'd never have to worry about another tornado again.

Suddenly homeless in Seattle

Atom12 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:46:34 -0800

Friend in Seattle is suddenly homeless. Can anyone recommend some resources? A friend of mine broke up with his girlfriend. He moved into his new apartment Friday and got all his stuff out of the storage unit and into the new apartment.

Today at 4am he wakes up to the sound of rushing water. The fire department tells him to grab his stuff and get out. He's got three bags of clothes and that's it. The area flooded and his apartment is now under 5+ feet of water. He didn't have renter's insurance.

The SFD tried to get ahold of the Red Cross but nobody answered. He does have a job, but obviously no apartment anymore. I just got off the phone with him and he hasn't talked to the landlord yet.

Has anyone been through something similar? Obviously he's learned a lesson about insurance, so let's leave that one alone if we can. Thanks in advance.

I'd really like to straighten my hair without dying!

wallaby — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:20:32 -0800

Can I use my hairdryer even though it got wet? Yesterday I discovered the bathroom sink had been leaking. The good news was that it had leaked into a plastic box below it but the bad news was that the box held several small appliances (hair dryer, straightener, etc). There was a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the box. So once I've let them sit for a bit, is it okay to use them again?

Mr. Wallaby is rather gung ho about using them again and just started plugging things in--"See? It still works!" but I'm a little more wary. Something about water and electricity...

Flooding, what to do?

nasreddin — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:07:24 -0800

My apartment had some minor flooding last night. Is it unreasonable to ask for a month of free rent? Or, have I lost my security deposit? I am a college student, I live alone in a medium-sized studio in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for which I pay $900/mo. Last night dirty water started coming out of my ceiling, probably 15 gallons or so--right into my lamp, potentially creating a deadly electrical situation. No one answered the door at the apartment above me. My property manager had not given me my new super's phone number, telling me to take maintenance issues to the management office (which was closed at 11 pm, of course). I had to call the Brooklyn fire department, which showed up, punched a hole in my ceiling (without asking me), turned off my electricity, and left.
After they left, more water started coming down the walls, "blistering" the paint. I immediately left a message at the management office explaining the situation.

Now I have a hole in my ceiling, bits of ceiling all over the floor, no electricity in my main room for several days, lots of wet/damaged books and possessions, a wall and the ceiling are water-damaged, and my whole apartment smells like swamp.

Is it reasonable to ask for a month of free rent? Or did I do something wrong, forfeiting my security deposit? My lease doesn't seem to say anything about this, it's a standard NYC lease. Otherwise, should I take this to some authority?

Do I have to deal with this water leak?

timory — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 09:59:45 -0800

What constitutes normal water damage/leakage in an old house? Is there a way to convince my otherwise very responsive landlord that my flooded bedroom is not, in fact, normal? Last night, my upstairs neighbor's bathroom flooded, and caused a lovely shower in my bedroom. Several buckets later, the problem has been contained and the landlord has been reached, but I can't help but feel that I'm being played for a fool, here.

My landlord is very responsive and nice, if a little flaky, and I don't really have a lot of complaints about him, nor do I want to be rude to him in any way. But when I explained to him what happened, he told me that there's really nothing he can do except to paint over the water stains on my bedroom ceiling. He told me that "water finds its own path," and that the flooding in my bedroom is just something I'm going to have to deal with if and when it happens. Yes, it's an old house, but is he right? Can't this sort of thing be caulked or fixed in SOME way? What can I reasonably demand from him?

Some of the information here helps, but I am not entirely sure that I am within legitimate rights to ask for repairs.

He told me in heaven that every everything is fine

fandango_matt — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:13:42 -0800

Let's assume (no soapbox rants, please!) global warming is a reality, the ice covering Greenland is melting, and the ocean's levels are rising. If I own a home and land which, according to this map, would be underwater, what--if anything--would the government do? I live near a major (federal) interstate, two major shipping ports, and a rail corridor linking the two. San Francisco and Oakland International Airports would also be underwater. What happens? Would they build a gigantic dike, like New Orleans and Holland? Is my home and the land on which it's built a total loss? If so, insurance-wise, is this considered an "Act of God"? If I was to put my home on the market tomorrow, must I declare global warming and the rising ocean levels as a possibility for flooding?

Damn you, Wal-Mart!

schroedinger — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 10:54:44 -0800

FloodOutTheLittleGuyFilter: This is on the behalf of a friend of mine. His parents own a small business in a small town in New York. A few weeks back there were heavy rainstorms and flooding in the area. The town decided to direct the floodwaters away from from the new Wal-Mart--and it ended up in the shopping center where the business is located. Now they're under over three feet of water, everything's ruined, and they didn't have flood insurance. Half of the stores in the center have dropped out of the lawsuit they were preparing against the town. What now? People dropped out to not make waves. The town's small enough (think size and pettiness) that the storeowners were afraid if they went ahead with the lawsuit there'd be repercussions. My friends' family doesn't have the financial power to carry on a long lawsuit or deal with having enemies. The town, of course, is not admitting to anything.

Are there any aid programs that could help them out? Not necessarily just legal aid, 'cause as said before without an army of storeowners backing them they're not keen on that route. Maybe any assistance programs, tax breaks, anything that can help minimize the monetary damage to my friends' family? This was their livelihood and they weren't in fantastic shape as it was.

Thanks very much for your help!

Does anyone flush sanitary napkins?

unknowncommand — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:08:00 -0800

Does anyone ever really flush sanitary napkins? I realize this is an odd question, but for the third time in my life (in three different apartment buildings) I have been informed that flushing "sanitary napkins" has caused flooding in my building. I for one, do not use sanitary napkins (and think that term is evocatively icky) though I understand that their packaging clearly advises against flushing them. Does anyone actually do this? Or are (male) plumbers just coming up with an excuse? Or are they actually using this term to (mistakenly) refer to tampons? Can any females or plumbers or female plumbers shed some light on this?

Why are the trunks open?

NotMyselfRightNow — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:50:43 -0800

What's the deal with the open trunk lids? Are the cars left with their trunks open, or are they forced open as a result of the flooding?

Where does all the water for a flood come from?

duck — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 20:53:28 -0800

Explain flooding to me So they're expecting up to 20 inches of rain in New Orleans. And the city may be under 10 feet of water. Huh? Ok, so figure if the city is 100 square Kms (10x10) it would take 300 million square metres of water to put it 10 feet under. If 20 inches of rain falls on those 50 million square metres, that's still only 225 000. So where does all the water come from in situations like that?

I know that in this case, part of it will run-off from higher elevation areas and the ocean coming in over the levees and getting caught in the city, but it seems like anytime there's flooding there's this same situation (the level of flooring reported exceeds the amount of rain that falls). And most of those places aren't shut off from the ocean by levees.

So what's the deal?

Is a flooded mattress worth saving?

brent — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 11:46:18 -0800

Is a water soaked mattress worth saving? Some water came from the second floor bathroom down through the ceiling fan flooding my room and soaking the mattress. Option A) Get a replacement mattress. B) Dry the mattress out, nothing wrong with it. Right now I would say just a mild, but noticable "wet dog" smell. No idea where the water was coming from. Not sure if a pipe burst, a shower or toliet drained, or what caused the water damage. I have renters insurance if that helps.

Insurance Claim?

TuxHeDoh — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 07:11:53 -0800

Over the weekend my basement flooded due to my sump pump not turning on. Should I place a home owners insurance claim? [mi] I bought this house 2 years ago from my parents. During the time my family lived there it flooded occasionally. It flooded last march, (after the blizzard, snow melting, pouring rain) because the sump pump was improperly installed and burnt up because it didn't have a check valve. I had to replace the sump pump, and put in a check valve. It hasn't flooded since, until Saturday. We had several rugs damaged, and lots of toys and such have to be cleaned. Due to a wet basement, I know there is water damage, not necessarily from this occurence, molded 2x4 wall studs, damaged drywall. What if anything can homeowners insurance do about this? Will they replace rugs? toys? pay for mold/mildew removal?