Wednesday afternoon I came home from work early as Cole wasn't feeling well. The older kids came home on the bus, and I started finishing my work from home. At the same time, unknown to us, a water main broke in front of the house and drained into our basement. This filled our basement FULL with water in under 45 minutes. The pressure from all that water caused significant damage to the foundation and shifted the house in such a way that major support beams buckled. The second floor came dangerously close to collapsing onto the first floor, where we were all situated in the living room. I watched the walls crack, break, and begin to crumble. It happened in SECONDS. I will remember the sound for the rest of my life. I got the kids out quickly in just our socks and t-shirts. Mike rushed home from work to be at our sides.

We had Police, Fire Department, Code Enforcement, EPA, Water Department, CMP and others there to help within minutes.

We left with what the firefighters and Mike were able to grab and spent the night in a hotel. The city spent the night trying to locate the break and were able to stop the water from flowing around 8am the next morning.

The house has been deemed a total loss. The City has determined it is not habitable. The Code Enforcer stated "No one will ever live in this house again."

Our first step is finding long-term housing so we are not living in a hotel any longer, and contacting an attorney to figure out who is liable.

The city told us yesterday that this was an extraordinary event with a less than a half of a percent chance of happening. They shared they had never seen this happen and called it "an act of god". They will not even consider allowing entry into the house for us to retrieve our belongings until our Property Management Company brings in a Structural Engineer to assess the damage and integrity of the house.

Our Property Management Company has alerted us that they have now severed the contract between themselves and the homeowner since the house has been deemed uninhabitable. They have quietly excused themselves from assisting us in any way. They also have not given us the contact information for the homeowner, so we cannot contact him. They have no idea when we will get our deposit back.

There was another water main break Friday night in the same area, which the city fixed the next morning. We went to the house to ensure it wasn't us again. Thankfully, it was roughly 75 feet up the road, but on the same water line. With some research, it was quickly realized that this has been an ongoing issue for the last 10+ years.

This certainly poses the question: when does this "act of god" start being considered infrastructure failure and/or negligence? Hopefully, with the help of an attorney, we can answer this question.

We are past the sadness; there are no more tears. We are MAD. We did not do this. We followed all the right steps, and yet we lost everything. Someone is going to make this right.

Any funds raised from this will go towards housing fees in the hotel to get us through until we find permanent housing, deposit/move in costs for the new place, and attorney fees.