Counting Blessings

I just read an article about people in Pine Grove and West Pittston, two town in PA who have been hit particularly hard with flooding rains, not just Tropical Storm Lee, but the rains we have continued to get after.  It's so sad.

One place I read about had mud and water in their basement.  They got it all cleaned out and then recently (the night Dan and I went away) it rained SO much and they found the basement full of mud and water again.  Ugh. Other places were just going to have to shut down until they could make all necessary repairs.

That same night we got water in our basement again too, but that was because of a sump pump mixup and thankfully we found it before we left so my mom didn't have to call us late at night to tell us.

So, these are things I just keep reminding myself of to be thankful for ...

The water in our basement was essentially clean, no mud, no sewage, no weird chemicals, just cat food from Dan spilling the bag.  oops.  I should post the pictures.

Our washer and dryer still work.

Our tv and dvd player were saved even though our wii wasn't.

The furniture down there was nothing that we had spent money on or financed.

We can live without our basement rec room. 

During all the flooding I saw footage on tv of people whose first floor was filled with water and mud.  This article I just read was talking about getting aid to people who were flooded out.

So, I think about our situation, and it does suck, even more now that we know insurance isn't covering anything.  Our basement window is broken.  Our sump pump needs to be rerouted because we had to put a new pipe on it.  Even though we see no mildew now I feel like it is still lurking and the walls will definitely need to be treated with something to seal it.

But, for the most part, we can close our basement door and forget about it because right now we don't have what we need to fix everything.

If it was our first floor where we eat, sleep and live that would be awful.  It would be like there is no escaping.  Being home all day in a house that was flooded out would be super depressing so I am grateful.  And, now that we had junk day our patio and driveway are cleaned up of all the damaged stuff.

I really hope those people are able to get the aid they need.  I did think about where we would go if our house wasn't livable due to mildew or something, and I didn't have a great answer.  A hotel would be super expensive and we don't have local family.  And, I wouldn't want to ruin any relationships with my "good friends."

So, while it's a huge bummer, and it comes while all these other bummers have been bombarding us, I know it could be much worse.  But it isn't.  And for that I am grateful.

UPDATE:  I wanted to add that these poor people who continue to deal with the flooding issues are now in need of counseling help so the government is adding that to the aid they are trying to provide.