The Great Flood

We love our apartment, but, with the exception of the washing machine, we have had issues with everything that uses plumbing. The kitchen sink ran nonstop, no matter whether the knobs were turned off or not (there was a broken washer in it); the toilet often runs after it is flushed; the shower head periodically falls out of the holder and once cracked Jason on the head; the faucet in the shower only runs through the shower head, not through the bath faucet. We haven’t really allowed these things to bother us. The landlord has promised to have it all fixed, and we have been patient. Last night, however, we awoke and had quite a shock.

Let me preface this story by saying that both of us sleep with either earplugs or headphones, and that the air conditioner in our room is really loud. When I went to sleep around 11:00, I heard a noise from the bathroom. We’ve got a suction-cup soap dish that keeps falling off the wall, so I just assumed it was that. I am still getting used to the noises of our apartment, too, so I didn’t really think anything of it. At about 1:30 Jason woke up and heard a noise. He woke me up, and we both got up to see what was going on, though I didn’t really hear anything.
The moment I stepped out our bedroom door, however, I knew something was really wrong. There was about a half-inch of water on the floor in the hallway, and it sounded like it was raining in the bathroom. Jason had walked past the bathroom into the living room, and so I was the one to go into the storm to see what was going on. There was a hose that had once been connected to the toilet (it’s the one that pumps water back into the tank after the toilet flushes) that had come loose and was spraying water, full force, all around our bathroom. It was like something out of a cartoon. The hose was whipping around wildly, and water was everywhere. I found the knob on the wall that turned off the water supply to the toilet and began to assess the damage.

Our bathroom and everything in it, including about 15 rolls of toilet paper, all our towels and toiletries, was soaked. I left the bathroom and started walking down the hall toward the living room. I stopped and looked in the dining room and found that it was more than half flooded. Some papers Luke and I had been playing with on the floor had washed from one side of the room to the other. The rug underneath the dining table was completely soaked. Back in the hallway, the water had poured down the two little stairs and into the living room and kitchen. The living room rug was soaked, as well. Our entire apartment, except for our bedroom and Luke’s room, was sitting in about ½ inch of water.

The lady who cleaned our house for us before we moved in had suggested buying a squeegee. Luckily I had. Jason grabbed it, and in the meantime, found Goma the bawa’ab. Goma brought his squeegee, too. Jason started pushing water out of the living room to Goma, who pushed it out the front door.

We were out of squeegees, so Jason suggested I use towels or a mop. Thinking that either choice was like moving a sand dune with a pair of tweezers, I decided to try the mop. It was laughable. My hands ached from wringing it out after only five minutes, and I’d collected about half a mop bucket full, but still not enough to make any visible difference. Ultimately, Goma got an extra squeegee from another building, and the three of us got all the water out of our house. It took about an hour. When the water was out, we turned on all the air conditioners and fans to get the floors completely dry. Then we went back to bed.

The next morning I called repairmen myself, instead of waiting on the landlord. They were there 30 minutes after I called, and my shower, tub, and toilet are all fixed. I also had the repair service send an electrician to fix 2 plugs. In an hour everything worked properly and my bill was a grand total of 40 LE (roughly equivalent to $7).

I also mopped the whole house and got on my hands and knees with rags to dry up the mop water. Try that with a 2-year old. Oh, how I’d love to have my FloorMate! J

On the positive side, I had been leaving my computer on the living room floor, plugged in to an outlet by the couch. That night, I moved it to our room, and it was not damaged by Lake Deutsch. I also had my box of photos sitting on the floor in the dining room. The edge of the water stopped about a foot from my photos.

8/26/07