During Hurricane Ida, our home has been devastated.

We are used to flooding and spent days in anticipation of Ida preparing our property. Moving absolutely everything from the ground floor up one story. Our buildings do have flood insurance but to the extend a 'normal' flood would require. The contents of our main floor are only minimally covered. 

 

We are Katja and Peter Bostock with our children Victoria (10) and Gabriel (7). We have lived on the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania for many years. Throughout those years, we have hosted many: The neighborhood Friday night happy hour, friend's birthday parties, Water Ski Club meetings, Annual Eastern Regional Barefoot Tournament, Ski Freeze every January 1 , the Scouts during 'Get on the water week' and everyone who wanted to enjoy water skiing or paddle boarding on our piece of the Schuylkill river. We opened our home and hearts, offering a place of friendship and connection for everyone.

 

During Hurricane Ida, our main floor went 4 feet under water. This is something that was never supposed to be possible. 7 feet higher than last year's bad flood. In the morning hours of Thursday, September second, some of our neighbors had to be rescued from their attics while we kept carrying valuables upstairs, trudging through cold, dirty flood waters in our living room. Luckily our bedrooms are all upstairs and we felt reasonably save.  In the early morning hours, we heard a loud crashing sound. Our refrigerator had floated up and fell over. Soon after, another crash. An armoire with our TV on top fell over and into the water.

After a day of rinsing mud off of our kitchen and furniture, we started to understand that this was not something we could fix. Our children would not be save living here. Within one week, walls had to get torn back to the studs to prevent mold. Framing, electrical wires and pipes are exposed. Are we homeless?

After drying the home, we need to raise the main floor to prevent future flooding in our living space. After raising the home, the complete main floor needs to be rebuilt.