Sewage

I don't even know how to begin to explain. Over the past month Merritt's office has been flooded with sewer water 3 times, each time progressively worse. The first was clear water and only reached a few offices. The second time, it was black sewage, about an inch deep and reached 3 offices, 2 bathrooms, the hallway, and the conference room. The disaster clean-up company had disinfected and cleaned the carpet, cut away drywall, removed toilets, etc. Before they were even done with clean up from that it happened again.

Last Saturday night, around 9:30, Merritt got a call from Mitch (works at the office). Mitch had gone into the office to check on the computers and the server, we fully believe it was divine intervention because he really didn't need to be there. The water was rising quickly. By the time the cleanup company had 2 trucks there pumping water out as fast as they could the black water had reached the top of the bottom step. Keep in mind this is raw sewage! They lost almost everything in the basement. The only things salvaged were 2 computer, the server (gratefully) and any files that were above the water (many were not). Desks, conference tables, chairs, bookcases, cabinets, refrigerators, my dining table and chairs (which I had stored there until we moved) the list goes on and on. There is easily $100,000 worth of damage. The basement has been stripped to the studs.

The thing that is so frustrating and, quite frankly, infuriating is it has been the cities fault every time. The pump is located across the street from the office. First of all, the equipment is over 50 years old and was not designed to accommodate the several new housing additions that now run through it. And even worse: the pumps, the backup pumps and the alarm (that should go off if anything fails) are all on the same circuit which keeps failing. Saturday night Layne called the mayor and woke him up to send someone down. After the guy had got things back up and running he came over to the office. In front of the four partners and the cities insurance adjuster he told them he as been trying to get the city to fix things but they will not put up the money. Everyone that has been involved has said that without a doubt it is the cities fault 120%. This is going to be a very large claim for the city and now they are trying to find a way out of it. They are having someone go through the office trying to find any little thing that doesn't meet code so they can get out of it. The thing I don't get is that a city worker is the one that inspected the building to ensure that it met code in the first place. So either way isn't the city still at fault? Layne has kept a pretty level head through all of this and has kept Merritt and the other two partners calm, but after that Layne lost it too. Needless to say, things have been very stressful.

It makes me sick every time I think of it, everything that was lost.