Life by the Sea
Apr. 19th, 2007 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
creidyladMy parents' house was flooded last weekend during the nor'easter; the basement filled up waist-high with water, and then an oil pipe broke so all the water filled with oil. A hazardous waste team had to clean up the rest and decided what was "salvageable."
Salvageable:
- 4 christmas ornaments. This includes one precious silver glass ball with the image of a bird hand-painted on it which predates the fire. Gone is everything else, including all my own glass which I'd loaned my parents for a few years while we rebuilt their collection (to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of dollars post-fire). I need to say somewhere so will say here I was strongly opposed to storing the ornaments in the basement, and said so. Repeatedly. I spent about a twenty minutes this morning coaxing the water out from inside the ornament with a toothpick -- it had no air hole.
- About 8 pieces of my grandmother's china.
- Most of my mother's china.
- A very tarnished silver tea set.
- Some heavy woodworking equipment.
Everything else from the basement is gone, but it's just things. My parents currently have no furnace and are staying in their friends' luxury homes until next week when they expect to have a furnace again.
Almost none of this is covered by insurance.
There are families in shelters down the street and at the high school. My next door neighbor went there and had to search around to find the families of some of her son's classmates to offer them a place to stay. I think I know where some of our unused toys and clothes are going.
Salvageable:
- 4 christmas ornaments. This includes one precious silver glass ball with the image of a bird hand-painted on it which predates the fire. Gone is everything else, including all my own glass which I'd loaned my parents for a few years while we rebuilt their collection (to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of dollars post-fire). I need to say somewhere so will say here I was strongly opposed to storing the ornaments in the basement, and said so. Repeatedly. I spent about a twenty minutes this morning coaxing the water out from inside the ornament with a toothpick -- it had no air hole.
- About 8 pieces of my grandmother's china.
- Most of my mother's china.
- A very tarnished silver tea set.
- Some heavy woodworking equipment.
Everything else from the basement is gone, but it's just things. My parents currently have no furnace and are staying in their friends' luxury homes until next week when they expect to have a furnace again.
Almost none of this is covered by insurance.
There are families in shelters down the street and at the high school. My next door neighbor went there and had to search around to find the families of some of her son's classmates to offer them a place to stay. I think I know where some of our unused toys and clothes are going.
