Not So Wordless Wednesday

The November Nor'Easter 2009 hit our neighborhood pretty hard. These first few pictures of were taken before the highest tide cycles hit. At it's peak, the water was over two feet higher than it was here but I wasn't around to photograph it because we evacuated to my in law's house.

side yard

backyard completely submerged

backyard off of deck

view of some neighboring apartments and some very unlucky cars. I'm told the white Accord wagon was almost completely covered with water during the highest tides!

View from the driver's seat as we fled Oceanview

Fallen tree after the Nor'Easter had passed.

side yard with lots of debris

backyard full of pine needles and crap once the waters finally receded.

Top water line was as high as our fourth step!

Wet, stinky garage with some seriously soaked drywall.

Over 30 inches of water in this part of the garage!

One of our big trees is now leaning pretty badly and will have to be chopped down just as soon as we can lay our hands on a chainsaw.

After a few days of good weather, a really hard working father in law, and some very generous volunteers from our church, I'm happy to report that our clean up efforts are nearly complete. We've done all we can do without professional help. Our insurance adjuster will be visiting on Saturday afternoon- hopefully we'll get the go ahead to hire a contractor to start ripping out the soggy drywall and treating for mold.

We feel quite fortunate to have suffered relatively minor damage compared to many of our neighbors. Our home is at the highest elevation on the street and is new enough to be subject to building codes that require the home to be built on at least a 6 foot crawl space if it is located in a flood zone. Our actual living space is dry and to our knowledge, the water in our crawl space did not breech the duct system or get into the insulation and floor trusses.

FEMA officials were here surveying the neighborhood yesterday to determine if our area will qualify for any federal assistance. It probably won't make much of a difference for us, but we're hopeful that Oceanview will qualify so some of our neighbors (particularly those renting and without insurance) can get some much needed assistance.