Sunday, August 9, 2009

Natural Disaster #3 in less than a year.

Above: our new office door. This was where the glass door crashed in to our office. The water level was last seen two feet above the top of the door (see last picture)
Above: the aftermath of our office on Thursday.
Below: the glass dorr that crashed in. You can see the water level above the handle to the door. You can also see water coming in from the sides of the door.
Flash Flood in Louisville. We received 7 inches of rain in one hour, which caused downtown Louisville to flood quickly. I was at work when the rain started and noticed that the water was rising up the outside door to our office. We started moving computers and medical supplies out of our office as sewage water started pouring in.
The above picture you can see the water line above the door handle and water coming in from the sides of the door. We were told to evacuate and about 15 minutes after I took this picture, we were upstairs when we heard this horrible noise...it was the door crashing in.
We were in the stairwell when we saw a file cabinet floating down the hallway. We were all told to go home before an electric fire started (because the electric panel was downstairs and is also filling up with water). The problem with leaving is that the streets were flooded and I and another coworker couldn't get to our cars. Dr. C took us to her house and Alan came to pick me up when the weather settled down. We were on the way home when Alan asked "what is that smell?" I guess I had gotten used to smelling like sewage and said "oh, the water was sewage water and I'm covered in it." I got home and took a shower and felt much better.
After the rain stopped and flood waters receded and 65 north was reopened mom and I went downtown to find my car before the next storm came. We got my car and it started pouring again and was difficult to drive in, but we made it home and my car is fine!
We were able to go back to work on Thursday to see if we could salvage anything. The pictures above were taken on Thursday. Some of our files were ok, some we had to throw away. We have been working from home until they can find us a work home. One person said that the downstairs will be up and running again by Aug. 24th and someone else said it could be 2-3 months! We will know more on Monday *hopefully*
Thankfully, our house was ok and received no flooding in the basement. I would have loved to seen the creek as I am sure it was pretty high! In less than a year Louisville has had three natural disasters: wind storm (the week of our wedding), and ice storm and now flas flood. Someone said we have had wind, ice, and water, all we need now is fire! No thank you!

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