Chicago River on a Rampage: Shock after the flood

(Our personal flood story, complete with pictures, starts at Albany Park floods-- Record-breaking rains. )

It is hard to describe what we felt early Sunday morning. We were exhausted and in shock. We didn't know how far the water was going to rise. We didn't know how much we would lose, nor did we know how long we would have that water in our basement.

About 5 a.m., I ventured outside, just as the sun was starting to lighten the skies. The people across the street had a pump! They were busy pumping water out of their basements and they were drinking beer. Not much else to do at that time.. just watch the water and drink.

They closed the door and opened the wine

(I later heard a resident of the 5000 block of Monticello, the lower-lying block that was hit much worse than ours, describe the arrival of the water. "I saw how fast the water was rising, and I knew I couldn't do anything. So we closed the door to the basement and opened a bottle of wine." When you've reached a certain kind of resignation, you understand that sentiment completely.)

I asked the neighbors about the pump. "The Home Depot on Kimball has stayed open all night to sell pumps," I was told. So we found Paul's spare car key (we couldn't find his key ring) and we got in his car and ventured out to the Home Depot.

The surreal "other" world

There is something surreal about moving back into the "real" world when your own world has turned to chaos. Our house was dark, as we weren't going to turn the electricity back on. The rest of the world had lights and power. Our house was a literal disaster area, with water in our downstairs living area and stuff filling every nook of the upstairs. The rest of the world lived in more orderly homes. We were dirty and wet and exhausted. The rest of the world was clean, dry, and still sleeping on that Sunday morning.

We quickly bought a pump... too quickly as it turned out; as the pump we bought was really unsuitable for our needs. But we didn't realize that until we started to read through the instructions.

We didn't have any electricity but the neighbors did. We saw that the house to the south, a house that is empty as its owners have moved away, had electricity and an outside outlet. It was still raining and I couldn't get our side gate open. So Paul, bad neck and all, jumped the fence and hooked up an extension cord to the neighbor's outlet.

Then we tried to read through the pump instructions.. Paul was reading over the manual..... and he fell asleep. Yep, just zonked right out, head nodding over the owner's manual. I think I managed to wake him and get him into the bedroom while I continued to look at the manual. No, this is the wrong kind of pump, I decided. We needed a smaller pump. I decided that we should go back to the Home Depot.

Exhaustion and confusion

But I was too exhausted to do any more, and Paul was sleeping, so I also went to lie down. When Paul awoke just a few hours later, he seemed confused. I realized that he hadn't eaten anything since before he had left work Saturday evening. Finally when he awoke a bit, he decided that we should go to Dunkin Donuts and then back to the Home Depot for a smaller pump.

He did decide that it was a better idea if I drove so we got into my car. By the time we got to the Dunkin Donuts, Paul had again fallen into a deep sleep. He stirred a bit and said that he didn't want donuts. I decided to get burgers, so we went through the McDonald's drive through. But they were still serving breakfast; no burgers yet.

I drove back through the rain to the Home Depot and got the smaller pump. By that time, it was late enough for burgers at Mickie D's. I got burgers. Paul had one bite and fell back asleep.

We went home; he went to bed for a few hours. He did not even remember the trip to McDonald's and the Home Depot when he awoke.

And a visitor from Texas: The remnants of Hurricane Ike

Meanwhile, the Hurricane Ike rains had started. At times it was raining heavily. The rains weren't expected to stop until early evening. I kept looking at the skies admonishing the clouds to stop raining. I wondered if the river had yet crested and if we had yet reached high tide in our basement.

We peeked through the basement door and found that the water was on Step 5:

(Click for the full effect:)