Flood Recovery Help
Donation protected
Monday, July 23, a storm came through Santa Fe. They say it was a once-in-a-lifetime event because it dropped more than 3" of rain and hail over a few hours. That is one quarter the average annual precipitation for Santa Fe.
Our street flooded, then our backyard, and then our house (which we had just purchased in March of this year). Every room in our house (including the garage) was flooded with up to 4" of muddy water that smelled of gasoline from a tipped gas can from up stream.
Much of our house has tile floors, but Rhys' and our bedrooms had carpet, which was soaked to the point of pooling around our feet when we stepped on it. The two rooms we had recently completed installing new laminate flooring in were also soaked and are now cupping and ruined.
That night, Anika's mom and stepdad, Fairley and Don, Heidi's dad, Jack, and our friends, Jennifer and Steve (who is actually our house insurance agent) came and helped us wet-vac, squeegie, and sump pump as much water out of the house as possible for 3-4 hours. We used every towel and sheet we have and Fairley and Don brought several laundry baskets of their towels over that night as well.
We have found out that because we don't have flood insurance (who does in the High Desert?), our home owners insurance does not cover ANYTHING!!!!!
With the amazing help of Fairley and Don, who worked tirelessly with us all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Heidi's sister, Kristina, and mom, Ethel, who came on Wednesday, we pulled the carpet from our room on Tuesday and the carpet from Rhys' room on Wednesday. The stench was unreal!
On Thursday, we pulled everything from the garage and cleaned it out and salvaged what we could. Luckily, much of our possessions were in plastic tubs, but we lost some very special items that had still been in cardboard boxes, such as Heidi's sports memorabilia and Christmas ornaments that Anika had had her whole life.
On Tuesday, a reporter with the Santa Fe New Mexican (our local newspaper) came and did a story on the flooding on our street as it was one of the worst hit in the city.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/fighting-flooding-with-mops-and-towels/article_394ae5b9-f864-5b41-b285-052d5c3ff6db.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share
On Wednesday evening, we, along with six or seven of our neighbors, went to City Hall to the City Council Meeting. Anika and six other neighbors spoke to the Council about the damages we have sustained and our concerns with the lack of adequate drainage in our area (which we believe was the reason our houses flooded). They listened to us and told us they had declared a state of emergency for the city, but have to apply to the state and FEMA for funding for disaster relief. We do not know at this point whether any funding will be forthcoming.
Starting Monday evening, Heidi had been calling flood remediation companies and they were all completely booked out at least a week or wouldn't return her calls. We wanted them to come and look at our floors and walls to see if we needed to open them up so we wouldn't get mold growing.
On Friday, Nate Armstrong, one of the owners of IPM Construction & Restoration from Albuquerque stopped at our house out of the blue to see if we were interested in having him take a look. He used his moisture probe and found that all of our walls had higher than safe moisture levels and some were saturated at 100%! He offered us a very fair price to open up any walls that needed it and leave fans and dehumidifiers for two days to dry our house out. He had to cut a one foot strip from at least five walls and drilled one inch holes every few inches in almost all of the other walls. He sprayed antimicrobial spray in the walls and left us with four industrial dehumidifiers and umpteen industrial fans for two days.
As of today, Sunday, July 29, our house is full of fans and dehumidifiers with open walls. We are waiting to take out the new laminate flooring with hopes that FEMA and the city will come to assess our damages (we've been told that it's better to wait until we've had an assessment before doing any more demo).
While we don't know the how much our damages will ultimately cost us, we expect it to be $10,000-15,000.
In addition, Anika wasn't able to see any clients this last week and Heidi had to take three days off of work without pay (she doesn't have any vacation left).
We know everyone is strapped right now, but we'd be extremely grateful for any help any of you can offer us.
Our street flooded, then our backyard, and then our house (which we had just purchased in March of this year). Every room in our house (including the garage) was flooded with up to 4" of muddy water that smelled of gasoline from a tipped gas can from up stream.
Much of our house has tile floors, but Rhys' and our bedrooms had carpet, which was soaked to the point of pooling around our feet when we stepped on it. The two rooms we had recently completed installing new laminate flooring in were also soaked and are now cupping and ruined.
That night, Anika's mom and stepdad, Fairley and Don, Heidi's dad, Jack, and our friends, Jennifer and Steve (who is actually our house insurance agent) came and helped us wet-vac, squeegie, and sump pump as much water out of the house as possible for 3-4 hours. We used every towel and sheet we have and Fairley and Don brought several laundry baskets of their towels over that night as well.
We have found out that because we don't have flood insurance (who does in the High Desert?), our home owners insurance does not cover ANYTHING!!!!!
With the amazing help of Fairley and Don, who worked tirelessly with us all day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Heidi's sister, Kristina, and mom, Ethel, who came on Wednesday, we pulled the carpet from our room on Tuesday and the carpet from Rhys' room on Wednesday. The stench was unreal!
On Thursday, we pulled everything from the garage and cleaned it out and salvaged what we could. Luckily, much of our possessions were in plastic tubs, but we lost some very special items that had still been in cardboard boxes, such as Heidi's sports memorabilia and Christmas ornaments that Anika had had her whole life.
On Tuesday, a reporter with the Santa Fe New Mexican (our local newspaper) came and did a story on the flooding on our street as it was one of the worst hit in the city.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/fighting-flooding-with-mops-and-towels/article_394ae5b9-f864-5b41-b285-052d5c3ff6db.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share
On Wednesday evening, we, along with six or seven of our neighbors, went to City Hall to the City Council Meeting. Anika and six other neighbors spoke to the Council about the damages we have sustained and our concerns with the lack of adequate drainage in our area (which we believe was the reason our houses flooded). They listened to us and told us they had declared a state of emergency for the city, but have to apply to the state and FEMA for funding for disaster relief. We do not know at this point whether any funding will be forthcoming.
Starting Monday evening, Heidi had been calling flood remediation companies and they were all completely booked out at least a week or wouldn't return her calls. We wanted them to come and look at our floors and walls to see if we needed to open them up so we wouldn't get mold growing.
On Friday, Nate Armstrong, one of the owners of IPM Construction & Restoration from Albuquerque stopped at our house out of the blue to see if we were interested in having him take a look. He used his moisture probe and found that all of our walls had higher than safe moisture levels and some were saturated at 100%! He offered us a very fair price to open up any walls that needed it and leave fans and dehumidifiers for two days to dry our house out. He had to cut a one foot strip from at least five walls and drilled one inch holes every few inches in almost all of the other walls. He sprayed antimicrobial spray in the walls and left us with four industrial dehumidifiers and umpteen industrial fans for two days.
As of today, Sunday, July 29, our house is full of fans and dehumidifiers with open walls. We are waiting to take out the new laminate flooring with hopes that FEMA and the city will come to assess our damages (we've been told that it's better to wait until we've had an assessment before doing any more demo).
While we don't know the how much our damages will ultimately cost us, we expect it to be $10,000-15,000.
In addition, Anika wasn't able to see any clients this last week and Heidi had to take three days off of work without pay (she doesn't have any vacation left).
We know everyone is strapped right now, but we'd be extremely grateful for any help any of you can offer us.
Organizer
Anika Myrdahl Mirri
Organizer
Santa Fe, NM